Our labs in Leiden and Groningen are equipped with several state-of-the-art cleanrooms. There are cleanrooms for nanolithography; for assembly; and for optical testing and calibration of flight models, also in vacuum. Our cleanroom in Groningen is set up as a space simulator with a control room, to test cameras for PLATO. We have several cryostats in Leiden and Groningen for cooling superconducting detectors to 0.5 or even 0.1 Kelvin (-272.9 degrees Celsius). We have electronics laboratories, optical laboratories and well-equipped workshops for high-precision fabrication of hardware using milling machines.
Assembling in the cleanroom at SRON
Hardware gets perfectly clean and perfectly aligned with the pick-and-place machine and alignment microscope.
Nanolithography in the cleanroom at SRON
Making the very finest superconducting chips. We make unique structures down to the micrometre, with very elaborate equipment as seen here.
Optical testing of flight models in the cleanroom at SRON
Optical testing: does the final flight model that goes into space perform flawlessly? Even in vacuum?
The space simulator for PLATO camera’s
The PLATO telescope will soon search for exoplanets. How do the cameras perform in this clean room where temperatures change and the vacuum is like in space?
An Instrument in the Making
An infrared grating is designed, made in the workshop and tested in an optical lab. An infrared detector to be combined with the grating to do science, is cooled to 0.1 Kelvin with a cryostat.