AMICA Control System Progress Status

The Antarctic Multi-band Infrared Camera is a NIR/MIR double armed camera operating in the K , L , M , N , Q photometrical bands that will be mounted at one of the F/21.65 IRAIT Nasmyth foci (Tosti et al. 2006; Dolci et al. 2009). AMICA will host two detectors: the short wavelength radiation, 1-5.5 µm NIR band, is sensed by a Raytheon CRC-463 InSb 256 × 256 detector, while the long wavelengths 7-25 µm MIR band – is served by a DRS Technologies BIB Si:As 128 × 128 pixels array optimized for moderate photon flux. A fully reflective optical system, composed of two off-axis parabolic mirrors and one fixed 45° flat mirror, achieves a common, optimized, focal ratio reduction to F/14.73 at the detectors focal plane. Taking advantage from the large difference in pixel size between the NIR/MIR detectors, the resulting field-of-view will be 2.29 × 2.29 arcmin2 and 2.87 × 2.87 arcmin2 on the NIR and MIR array, respectively. In the present paper we report on the successful tests of the NIR/ MIR multiplexers functionality at the maximum required readout frequency.