Institut national de recherche scientifique français Univerité Pierre et Marie Curie Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7

The test bench YACADIRE

Wednesday 19 December 2018, by JĂ©rĂ´me Parisot

The Yacadire test bench has the following functions :

  • Simulate and control the environmental conditions of an IR detector, especially regarding the vacuum, thermal conditions and its optics
  • Perform calibrations on IR detectors

YACADIRE is located in a cleanroom (cleanroom SOYOUZ, Class 10000 or ISO 7). YACADIRE (YAmina CAlibration Detector Infra Red Euros) has been developed to calibrate the infrared detector of the instrument VIRTIS-H (Missions ROSETTA & VENUS-EXPRESS).

The setup has been conceptualized with the idea to be reused for other experiences, so with a certain degree of flexibilities. It has been served for qualification trials for the subsystems of the MIRI instrument and for the coronagraph of SPHERE.

The installation includes :

  • A horizontal cylindrical vacuum chamber
  • A pumping system ((primary + secondary) consisting of :
    • A rotary vane pump (outside the room) ;
    • A turbomolecular pump mounted on the vacuum chamber ;
  • A cryogenerator with a cooling power of 40W @77K ;
  • A filterwheel with 12 positions at the interior of the vacuum chamber, also cooled ;
  • A granite bench (1600x800 mm2) on which are based the optical stimuli (e.g. the integrating sphere).

YACADIRE test bench
YACADIRE test bench

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YACADIRE test bench
YACADIRE test bench

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Internal mechanics of YACADIRE
Internal mechanics of YACADIRE

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YACADIRE assembly vertical cut
YACADIRE assembly vertical cut

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View of the internal assembly of YACADIRE
View of the internal assembly of YACADIRE

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The calibration consists of determining the characteristic magnitudes of the IR detector by exploring the results of the following measurements :

  • Response as a function of the load ;
  • Dark current ;
  • Read-out noise ;
  • Response as a function of the photon flux ;
  • Flat fields as a function of the wavelength;