2015

09

JUN

ESO Signs Technology Transfer Licence Agreement with FRACTAL S.L.N.E. for Cooling System

ESO has signed an agreement to license its cooling system technology to our company FRACTAL SLNE. Continuous flow cooling systems were first developed at ESO for the cooling of instruments and detectors for the Very Large Telescope (VLT). Continuous flow systems are more compact than traditional systems that use a bath of very cold liquid, but share the advantage of being vibration free. The continuous flow system allows the temperature within an instrument to be changed from room temperature to -193 degrees Celsius and is not affected by the loss of electrical power. As a result, the instrument can be kept very close to its operating temperature and the vacuum within the instrument can be retained. This agreement includes the licensing of the well-proven cryostats (which regulate the low temperatures) that are used to cool individual detectors from room temperature down to -193 degrees Celsius and the more sophisticated version that is used for the cooling of the ultra-stable detectors used in more sensitive measurements. More information can be found on ESO press release The image by ESO shows the MUSE instrument on the VLT: equipped with 24 continuous flow cooling systems (Credit: ESO)