JRA L3 Detector development Progress Report, Oct 2005 Vik Dhillon (Univ. Sheffield) Tom Marsh (Univ. Warwick) Andy Vick (UKATC)

V2 L3 Driver board ● 2 nd Version of L3 Driver board now fully functional ● Can be added to any Gen III SDSU controller without modification ● Uses standard clock line boosted for L3 voltages ● Computer controlled clock level in 20mV steps ● Good stability

V2 Driver board tests ● Tested with E2V CC87 ● In operation the driver meets our requirements BUT ● We are seeing clock induced charge as per other groups ● There is some feed through of noise to from the DSP circuitry on the SDSU Consequently we are planning to fabricate a third generation of L3 driver.

V3 Driver fabrication ● New driver uses a different voltage source to reduce noise ● New driver will provide more capabilities for “shaping” the clock pulse ● Already designed, awaiting fabrication

L3 Developments ● SDSU has two DSPs, one in the controller and one on a PCI board (via fiber link) ● PCI DSP is relatively unused ● We have added threshold detection code to the PCI DSP ● SDSU transfers raw images to PCI board ● PCI board thresholds, and builds up frame from photon data ● PCI board then transfers frame to PCI ● Fits into existing SDSU system (Ultracam)

JRA Expenditure ● PPARC (UKATC) Submission to Opticon for 2004 was 1523 € – 913 € Direct costs (manpower) – 620 € Indirect costs (travel & equipment) ● Univ. Sheffield Submission to Opticon for 2004 was 0€ ● Univ. Warwick Submission to Opticon for 2004 was 0€

JRA Expenditure ● PPARC (UKATC) Expenditure so far in 2005 is aprox. 1,400 € – 1000 € Direct costs (manpower) – 400 € Indirect costs (travel & equipment) ● Univ of Sheffield Expenditure so far in 2005 is aprox. 32,500 € ● Univ of Warwick Expenditure so far in 2005 is aprox. 700 €

JRA3 2005/2006 Prediction ● PPARC (UKATC) prediction for 1/1/05 to 30/6/06 is 26,000 € at the last estimate – 20,000 € Direct costs (manpower) – 6,000 € Indirect costs (travel & equipment) ● Univ. of Sheffield prediction was 24,000 € – 20,000 € Direct costs (manpower) – 4,000 € Indirect costs (travel & equipment) ● Univ. of Warwick prediction was 6,000 € – 5,000 € Direct costs (manpower) – 1,000 € Indirect costs (travel & equipment)

L3 Spectroscopy tests ● Meeting at ATC 5 th October with ESO staff ● Assumption is that we can use EMMI spectrograph on NTT, La Silla ● ESO are providing drawings for mounting etc ● ESO have said they will loan us an EMMI red cryostat if necessary ● Decision on whether we can use discretionary time, or have to apply for science time, is yet to be resolved

L3 Spectroscopy tests ● Need to develop; – Basic tests for L3 chip on sky – Science tests for spectroscopy in photon counting mode – Science tests for spectroscopy in “low amplification” mode ● We hope to be on sky in mid 2006 ● Time for others to ask for science or instrument tests?

Expenditure to 30/6/2006 ● 15 k€ New cryostat ● 4 k€ New clock driver board fabrication ● 2 k€ Miscellaneous cabling, racking and mechanical parts for EMMI mounting ● 10 k€ Mechanical effort at Sheffield (for cryostat interior, mounting for EMMI, etc) ● 20 k€ Electronics effort at UKATC on L3 ● 15 k€ Shipping and travel to La Silla ● Total 66 k€ between the three institutions