7th March 2012: QMC Instruments Ltd. has delivered the final shipment of 80 vacuum windows for "band 10" of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) telescopes in Chajnantor in the Chilean Andes. These windows are anti-reflection coated and have very challenging requirements for the in-band transmission. We received the following comment from ESO: "The performance of these windows are of a high standard, just like the previous batch, and the non-compliances are minor. My congratulations to you and other QMC staff involved!"
ALMA is an international collaboration between Europe, East Asia, and North America, and will consist of 66 radio telescopes operating together to form the equivalent of one large telescope. We have supplied windows for various ALMA "bands" (frequency ranges), in addition to solar blocking filters, which allow observations of our nearest star (the Sun) without destroying the delicate detectors. We also continue to provide cooled polarising grids. We can of course offer anti-reflection coated windows, solar blocking filters and grids made to the same high standards and customised to your requirements. Our sister company, TK Instruments has provided further vital components in the form of calibrators which are used on each of the telescopes; these are also now available for sale.
The windows ready for shipment
Measured transmission for five of the 80 windows