A-MKID warm mirrors for SRON

© Johan Pragt

The NOVA-ASTRON team recently produced 2 mirrors for the A-MKID test setup of SRON. These mirrors are called warm as they are applied at the room temperature part of the test setup, in contrast with the cold mirrors produced in 2013 (by the same team) that are applied at about zero Kelvin.

Within two weeks from the request for production, two large accurate off-axis mirrors were delivered. Such a feat is only feasible with highly skilled personnel (Menno Schuil and Niels Tromp) and with the help of good equipment (Hermle 5-axis CNC milling machine) and short management lines.

A-MKID (APEX-Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors) is a development at our sister institute SRON and others. The A-MKID is a dual-band camera, simultaneously covering two atmospheric windows centered on 350 GHz and 850 GHz. A-MKID is for APEX (situated in Chile) what is Apertif for the WSRT: it offers (many) more pixels to the telescope. With in total about 25000 pixels, the A-MKID instrument will be the largest submillimeter-wave camera on any telescope ever.

http://www.sron.nl/kinetic-inductance-detectors-research-and-technology-2506