CHEC

The Compact High-Energy Camera (CHEC) is a design option proposed for the small-sized telescopes (SSTs) of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), focusing on the gamma-ray detection at the upper end of the gamma-ray spectrum (from 1 TeV up to around 300 TeV).

Thanks to the use of dual-mirror, Schwarzschild–Couder (SC) optics, CHEC can be – by design – very compact (0.5 m x 0.5 m), light (50 kg), and low-cost (150€). Using electronics based on TARGET (TeV Array Read-out with GSa/s sampling and Event Trigger) application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) allows a flexible trigger scheme and continuous sampling at 1 GSa/s. Full waveforms for all 2048 pixels are read out without loss at over 600 Hz.

Two full prototype cameras have been developed. The first (CHEC-M), based on multi-anode photomultipliers (MAPMs) as photosensors, was successfully characterised in the laboratory and during on-telescope campaigns where it saw Cherenkov light from air showers, as the first CTA camera prototype and the first camera ever using SC optics. The second (CHEC-S), featuring upgraded ASICs and Silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs), is under commissioning at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik in Heidelberg.

See Publications for a number of publications about CHEC.