The National Science Foundation has awarded the Rochester Institute of Technology $1.2 million to develop, fabricate and test a new family of detectors grown on silicon wafer substrates by Raytheon Visions Systems.
“If this is successful, the astronomy community will have a ready supply of affordable detectors that could be deployed on a wider range of facilities,” said Don Figer, director of the Center for Detectors at RIT and lead scientist on the project, in a news release. “Right now infrared detectors are so expensive that there are only a few on the world’s biggest telescopes."
Figer said Keck, Gemini and the Very Large Telescope are the only facilities that can afford them, and then they can only afford a few. Making infrared detectors using silicon wafers will utilize the existing infrastructure entered around the semiconductor industry and decrease the cost of building detectors.
For more information click rit.edu/news.
The National Science Foundation has awarded the Rochester Institute of Technology $1.2 million to develop, fabricate and test a new family of detectors grown on silicon wafer substrates by Raytheon Visions Systems.
“If this is successful, the astronomy community will have a ready supply of affordable detectors that could be deployed on a wider range of facilities,” said Don Figer, director of the Center for Detectors at RIT and lead scientist on the project, in a news release. “Right now infrared detectors are so expensive that there are only a few on the world’s biggest telescopes."
Figer said Keck, Gemini and the Very Large Telescope are the only facilities that can afford them, and then they can only afford a few. Making infrared detectors using silicon wafers will utilize the existing infrastructure entered around the semiconductor industry and decrease the cost of building detectors.
For more information click rit.edu/news.
