Custom Solutions

CASPA (Cold Atom Space PAyload) was an Innovate UK-funded project to design and develop a prototype 6U satellite carrying a cold atom experiment into space. The project was led by Teledyne e2v Ltd (Teledyne e2v), and involved 6 other consortium members including XCAM Ltd, University of Birmingham, University of Southampton, Covesion, Gooch and Housego, and Clyde Space.

The project aimed to prove that operating a miniature cold atom system in space was a viable possibility and raised the TRL level of the technology required to a level at which such payloads can now be considered for larger satellites which require more mature technology with space heritage.

Within the project XCAM was responsible for the Electronics and Imaging Sub-system, a set of PC-104 PCBs providing the power and data interface between the Platform and the entire payload and an imager (based on XCAM's C3D CubeSat camera) that was used to capture images of the cold atom cloud within the cold atom trap.

Further information on CASPA has been published here:

Devani, D., Maddox, S., Renshaw, R. et al. Gravity sensing: cold atom trap onboard a 6U CubeSat. CEAS Space J 12, 539–549 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12567-020-00326-4

View the CASPA poster here:

The technique of Beta Autoradiography is used in many scientific disciplines for analyses ranging from rock porosity to drug discovery. XCAM developed a digital imaging system based on CCD technology derived from X-ray Astronomy applications to replace conventional film which offers the benefits of high sensitivity, excellent linearity, real-time data acquisition, with the major benefit of operating in air at room temperature.

View the BetaCam poster here:

XCAM specialises in producing custom and prototype CCD cameras for leading-edge science experiments all over the world and is able to design and manufacture large area and multiple CCD cooled camera systems that suit your application.

We specialise in understanding your application so that we can optimise the choice of CCD type and the design and manufacture of the camera system to maximise the performance for your application. We commission custom camera systems personally on-site.

• CCD types: Front-illuminated (FI); Back illuminated (BI); with or without Anti-Reflection coating; Deep depletion (DD); Red-enhanced; UV enhanced; coated for wavelength sen-sitivity; high resistivity; EMCCD
• Large area, or arrays of smaller CCDs
• UHV compatible construction if required
• On-site commissioning and support
• Custom software requirements met
• Specification and procurement of custom CCD if required
• Master-Slave mode for synchronous operation of multiple CCDs
• Unique software enabling one PC to control multiple CCD cameras as one

For more details please contact us for further information specific to your requirement.

Non-imaging X-ray spectroscopy with a swept charge device. Swept Charge Devices (SCDs), such as e2v technologies CCD54 and C1XS devices with four CCD54 detectors in on one ceramic package (shown in the images below), offer a low cost, large area, fast read-out alternative to the CCD, for situations where spatial information is not required. These devices are designed to operate at temperatures that can be achieved using Peltier cooling, so that liquid nitrogen is not required, making them a good replacement for the Si(Li), PIN and SDD devices.

SCDs are:

• Low cost
• Efficient over the 0.5-10keV band
• Large area, up to 400 mm2
• Low noise; typically ~5 electrons rms, giving 80 eV FWHM at 1keV and 130eV FWHM at 6keV
• High SNR; peak to background ratio of 4000:1 with collimation
• A suitable replacement for Si(Li), PIN and SDD devices
• Able to be operated warm (without LN2)
• Fast to read-out

The CCD is required to detect a tiny amount of exponentially-decaying light, and to operate in a mode which permits the decay constant to be determined. The resulting spectrum’s temporal resolution is around 2 microseconds.