Because of humanity’s ambition to learn more about the universe’s beginnings, deep space research has captivated people’s attention for decades. For Microgate of Italy and its customers, it’s a never-ending quest for creativity and knowledge.
Vinicio and Roberto Biasi founded Microgate in 1989, and the company quickly gained a reputation for producing extremely precise timing devices for professional sports and racing events.
With the development of motor-control systems for enormous earth-based telescopes, same enthusiasm for utmost precision quickly spread to space.
Exploring deep space with the largest telescopes on Earth
The adaptive mirrors for the newest and largest generation of Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs), which are ground zero for discovering new galaxies, stars, and planets, are constructed by Microgate and the European Southern Observatory (ESO), an intergovernmental research organization for ground-based astronomy. These telescopes’ main task is to gather light from the far past in order to gain a better understanding of the universe’s beginnings.
The remarkable 39-meter-diameter primary mirror of the new ESO-ELT gathers the limited photons that are available from far-off stars and galaxies. This Earth-based approach to investigating the universe’s origins offers two key benefits over the Hubble or James Webb space observatories.
- Size: The new ELT is 23 times larger than the Hubble telescope.
- Flexibility: Ground telescopes can be located anywhere and are easily upgradeable, while their counterparts in space are difficult to maintain.
Several groundbreaking discoveries have been made by ESO telescopes. For instance, by using ESO’s equipment to monitor the motion of stars in our galaxy’s severe gravitational field, astronomers were able to provide strong evidence for the existence of a supermassive black hole. For this discovery, the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics was given.
Battling atmospheric wave-fronts with adaptive optics
As light passes through the atmosphere, it is subject to a disturbance known as a wave-front aberration, which degrades visibility. Microgate’s adaptive optics technology corrects for this.
Captured light is reflected from the primary mirror to a secondary, adaptive mirror, which is physically deformed to re-establish what is known as a “plane” wave-front.
In the case of the ESO-ELT project, Microgate delivers all of the real-time control hardware and software to mechanically deform the mirror and physically manipulate the incoming wave-front using sophisticated contactless linear motors, to correct for these atmospheric disturbances (see a short video demonstration).
The ESO-ELT M4 mirror is 2.4 meters in diameter and is made of highly specialized glass with a thickness of about 1.9 millimeters. The mirror uses voice coil-motors that are driven by a precise current driver and a series of co-located permanent magnets to provide the necessary force to deform the mirror.
This process is performed across the entire surface of the mirror using 5,316 motors, each with an inter-axis distance, or pitch, of about 30 millimeters.
The adaptive mirror physically floats on the magnetic field generated by the motor coils. This allows a dedicated control current to locally deform the mirror and correct the shape using an equivalent number of highly-sensitive capacitive, or position sensors with an accuracy in the nanometer (millionth of a millimeter) range.
Using electronic systems which operate at a frequency of about 100 kHz, Microgate engineers can completely redefine the shape of the mirror in one millisecond. The result is an extremely sharp and clean rendered image without having to launch a telescope into space.
Vicor high density modules power adaptive optics
Precise manipulation and thermal management of the adaptive optics system is critical and requires all exposed surfaces to be kept close to ambient temperature to avoid local turbulence. The power system challenge is made even more difficult by the limited space.
Microgate chose the Vicor DCM3623 series of DC-DC converter power modules to power this process. The power system board is mounted on the underside of the gas-cooled cold plate,and each module powers up to 36 motor channels, eliminating complex wiring.
“Vicor’s high-efficiency and high-power density modules are very compact and reliable, and take up very little space on the circuit board,” said Gerald Angerer, Hardware Engineer, Microgate. “These miniaturized power converters are the best option for us. We have been using them for more than 10 years and there is currently no comparable substitute.”
Collaborating to unlock secrets of our Universe
Microgate is committed to unlocking the secrets of the Universe through deep space exploration, and Vicor high density power modules are driving the adaptive optics of these next-generation ELTs. In collaboration, Microgate is working with Vicor and other world-class partners to help unlock clues to the origins of our Universe for organizations like the European Southern Observatory. Together world-changing discoveries are being made.
Learn more about how power-dense modules help Microgate support deep space exploration
