SCUBA-2

SCUBA-2 is the world’s best sub millimetre imager. It utilises a revolutionary detector design which provides 100 times more pixels, and two times better sensitivity than its predecessor. The detectors consist of four arrays of 1280 pixels, and are cooled to 100 mK using sophisticated cryogenic systems. The arrays use superconducting transition-edge sensors to achieve high sensitivities, and superconducting quantum interference devices to perform signal multiplexing.

SCUBA-2 has been built by an international consortium led by the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, and including NIST, the University of Edinburgh, Cardiff University, the Joint Astronomy Centre, Hawaii and a consortium of Canadian universities. It is currently being commissioned on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope on Hawaii.

SCUBA-2 stands for The Sub millimetre Common-User Bolometer Array – 2.