In late September, responsible members of CEFCA and the J-PAS collaboration visited e2v headquarters to see, first hand, the progress made on the set up of the cryogenic camera of JPCam, the scientific instrument designed by CEFCA and Brazil for the JST250 telescope.

The manufacturing process of all the elements has finished and the camera is now in the final integration and engineering testing phase. The team of the project expressed satisfaction with the progress made and the ongoing fine-tuning works of the camera, which is expected to be delivered next summer. Once the camera is delivered, CEFCA will take responsability over its optimisation at the telescope environment, regular operation and maintenance.

The cryogenic camera subsystem has been designed and manufactured by e2v is the most sophisticated part of the JPCam scientific instrument. It comprises the cryostat, the cooling and vacuum systems and the JPCam focal plane, which includes a mosaic of 14 large format and high sensibility CCD detectors especifically developed for this instrument that will equip the camera with 1,200 million pixels.

During the visit, the CEFCA and J-PAS members followed up the vacuum and cooling tests of the camera which are carried out to fine-tune the criogenic system, the temperature control and the electronics behaviour. Also, e2v will shortly begin integration of the focal plane with the scientific CCD to carry out the positioning and alignment of the detectors with high precision metrology.

After the final perfomance of all the elements is achieved, the criogenic camera will be sent to Teruel, where CEFCA will assemble it with the mechanical part of JPCam in the OAJ's clean room and its final integration at the JST250 telescope.