An 8-mm diameter fibre robot positioner for massive spectroscopy surveys

Massive spectroscopic survey are becoming trendy in astrophysics and cosmology, as they can address new fundamental knowledge such as understanding the formation of the Milky Way and probing the nature of the mysterious dark energy. To enable massive spectroscopic surveys, new technology has been de...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Fahim, N., Prada, Francisco, Kneib, J. P., Glez-de-Rivera, G., Hörler, P., Sánchez del Río, Justo, Azzaro, M., Becerril, S., Bleuler, H., Bouri, M., Castaño, J., Garrido, J., Gillet, D., Gómez, C., Gómez, M. A., González-Arroyo, A., Jenni, L., Makarem, L., Yepes, G., Arrillaga, X., Carrera, M. A., Diego, R., Charif, M., Hug, M., Lachat, C.
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2015
Country:España
Institution:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repository:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/388412
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/388412
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Instrumentation: spectrographs
Techniques: spectroscopic
Surveys
Large-scale structure of Universe
Description
Summary:Massive spectroscopic survey are becoming trendy in astrophysics and cosmology, as they can address new fundamental knowledge such as understanding the formation of the Milky Way and probing the nature of the mysterious dark energy. To enable massive spectroscopic surveys, new technology has been developed to place thousands of optical fibres at a given position on a focal plane. This technology needs to be: (1) accurate, with micrometer positional accuracy; (2) fast to minimize overhead; (3) robust to minimize failure; and (4) low cost. In this paper, we present the development, properties, and performance of a new single 8-mm in diameter fibre positioner robot, using two 4-mm DC-brushless gearmotors, that allows us to achieve accuracies up to 0.07 arcsec (5 μm). This device has been developed in the context of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. © 2015 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.