MIRAC: a mid-infrared array camera for astronomy

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Abstract
MIRAC is a Mid InfraRed Array Camera built for ground-based astronomy by Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona, Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the Center for Advanced Space Sensing at the Naval Research Laboratory. It utilizes a Hughes Aircraft Co. 20 X 64 pixel arsenic-doped silicon impurity band conduction hybrid array with a capacitance transimpedance amplifier readout (CRC 444A) operating at 10 K in a liquid helium-cooled cryostat. It has an operating wavelength range of 2 to 26 micrometers . Using 20 parallel readout lines and frame rate of 10 KHz, the array exhibits both low noise and good linearity at high background flux, which is essential for 10 and 20 micrometers ground-based observing conditions. It has a peak quantum efficiency of 0.42 at 22 micrometers , and a well size of 120,000 electrons. MIRAC has been operated on the Steward Observatory 2.3-meter and NASA 3-meter IRTF telescopes a number of times for observing a variety of objects including infrared-luminous galaxies, planetary nebulae, star forming regions, and young stellar objects. The NEFD of MIRAC on the IRTF at 11.7 micrometers is 0.1 Jy/square-arcsec in one second of integration on-source, four seconds total time, including nodding and chopping off-source.

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