Specifications

(SIMS User's Guide explains why cooling is important to reduce thermal
noise). If you plug the G2 CCD to power supply, you may notice the fans on
the back side of the camera head start operation. These fans take away the heat
from the hot side of the Peltier modules, which cool the CCD chip. Fans are
running continuously, independently on the Peltier cooler (they are also used to
cool down the camera power supplies etc.).
Peltier cooler can be controlled from the “Cooling” tab of the SIMS CCD
Camera tool.
Illustration 14: Cooling tab of the CCD Camera Control tool
Although the Cooling tab displays number of values and graphs, only two
values can be modified by the user. The “Set Temperature” count-box defines
required CCD chip temperature and the “Max. dT” count-box defines the
maximum speed, with which the temperature can change. If the required
temperature is greater or equal to the current CCD chip temperature, the Peltier
cooler is off. The “Cooling utilization” indicator displays 0% and the camera
consumes minimum energy.
To cool down the CCD chip, set the required temperature to target value.
Camera does not switch the Peltier cooler to 100% immediately, but starts
changing of the target temperature according to defined maximal speed. The
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