e2v Technologies Ltd. of Chelmsford, England, has signed a multimillion-pound contract with the Russian Academy of Sciences to supply an imaging subsystem for the World Space Observatory-Ultraviolet (WSO-UV).

e2v CEO Keith Attwood said the contract is the biggest order the company has received from an organization in Russia.

The WSO-UV is a Russia-led international collaboration to build and operate a 1.7-m space telescope in the UV range to study the universe in wavelengths beyond the reach of ground-based instruments. The instrument will be equipped with Russia-made optics and e2v’s UV cameras for its high- and low-resolution spectrographs.

The British company will design and build a turnkey subsystem consisting of charged-coupled device sensors, cryostat enclosures and drive electronics for all three of the spectrographs onboard WSO-UV.

Because the mission requires short wavelengths, e2v’s high-performance back-thinned sensors will be configured and tested for optimum quantum efficiency between 120 and 310 nm, a range considerably lower than the typical 270-nm test limit. A vacuum cryostat enclosure will be designed by e2v to ensure stable operation while working with Rutherford Appleton Laboratory for the supply of the space-qualified CCD drive electronics.

The subsystem will have hour-long integration and low signal readout levels, making minimal noise through an e2v image sensor; special video processing electronics from Rutherford; and low temperature operation (–100 °C) provided by the cryostat. The telescope is planned for launch in 2016.

For more information, visit: www.e2v.com or wso.inasan.ru