Hobby-Eberly telescope: LRS-J HAWAII-1 detector electronics

The first second-generation instrument for the Hobby-Eberly telescope is a novel J band camera (LRS-J) which mates to the existing low resolution spectrograph (LRS). This camera uses the existing LRS longslit and mutltiobject units as well as the LRS five element collimator but uses its own J optimized volume holographic grisms, f/1 cryogenically cooled camera, and readout electronics built around a Rockwell HAWAII-1 array. We minimized the development time of the controller by reusing as much of the existing framework as possible. The modular design of the existing LRS CCD controller allows us to modify only the clock-driver and penthouse (pre-amplifier) modules. Furthermore, we were able to use existing multilayer circuit boards already fabricated for these two modules. Thus, the LRS-J controller required only the substitution of components on two modules and the design of a new header (dewar) board to fit the HAWAII-1 socket. With these modifications, based on its perfomance with CCDs, we predict a noise and crosstalk performance at the most competitive level.

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