Performance of the first HAWAII 4RG-15 arrays in the laboratory and at the telescope

Abstract

The primary goal of the HAWAII 4RG-15 (H4RG-15) development is to provide a 16 megapixel 4096x4096 format at significantly reduced price per pixel while maintaining the superb low background performance of the HAWAII 2RG (H2RG). The H4RG-15 design incorporates several new features, notably clocked reference output and interleaved reference pixel readout, that promise to significantly improve noise performance while the reduction in pixel pitch from 18 to 15 microns should improve transimpedance gain although at the expense of some degradation in full well and crosstalk. During the Phase-1 development, Teledyne has produced and screen tested six hybrid arrays. In preparation for Phase-2, the most promising of these are being extensively characterized in the University of Hawaii's (UH) ULBCam test facility originally developed for the JWST H2RG program. The end-to-end performance of the most promising array has been directly established through astronomical imaging observations at the UH 88-inch telescope on Mauna Kea. We report the performance of these Phase-1 H4RG-15s within the context of established H2RG performance for key parameters (primarily CDS read noise), also highlighting the improvements from the new readout modes.

Imaka: a ground-layer adaptive optics system on Maunakea

“…! 15 detector [21]. These cameras will provide fields of view of 11'x11' in the visible (0.4-1.0 microns) and 7'x7' in the near-infrared (1-1.8um) respectively.…”

“…Both of the cameras are compatible with the exit focal plane of `imaka but only one camera will work on the instrument at a time. The UH88" STA1600 camera is under commissioning at the telescope while the first science grade H4RG-15 detectors are undergoing lab/on-sky testing [21].…”

“…a decenter error of the mirror can be compensated with a piston and tilt of the mirror). To make use of the corrected science focal plane, we will use the UH88" facility 10kpixel x 10kpixel CCD camera based on a DALSA STA1600 monolithic detector and a near-infrared camera based on the first science-grade Teledyne H4RG-15 detector [21]. These cameras will provide fields of view of 11'x11' in the visible (0.4-1.0 microns) and 7'x7' in the near-infrared (1-1.8um) respectively.…”

Teledyne's high‐performance 4 K × 4 K infrared detectors

“…As a result, large quantities of focal plane arrays (FPAs) for scientific, commercial, space, and military applications have been developed, manufactured, and delivered in the past three decades. Large infrared 4 K × 4 K FPAs covering the wavelength range from 0.4 to 2.5 μm presented here demonstrate a capability at TIS in producing state‐of‐the‐art MBE HgCdTe infrared 4 K × 4 K substrate removed 15 and 10 microns pixel pitch arrays with unprecedented performance that meet and exceed the most demanding requirements of low‐background astronomy, both from the ground and in space (Blank et al 2012; Hall et al 2012).…”