The TIFUUN instrument is in construction by an international collaboration led by TU Delft (Prof. Akira ENDO) and involving partners from The Netherlands, Japan and France. TIFUUN will be a multi-beam (tens of beams) on-chip spectrometer to be installed on the ASTE 10-meter telescope, operated by Japan and located in Chile at 4,860 meters altitude (12 meters above the Mont Blanc peak). ASTE is only 6 km from the location of our previous instrument, CONCERTO on APEX. The initial Néel Astrophysics Instrumentation contribution to the project has been the design and construction of a special dilution cryostat and a compact, remotely controlled Gas Handling System (GHS).
Below: The TIFUUN cryostat (right) and Gas Handling System (left) | The TIFUUN system, which is entirely cryogen-free, has been installed and operational in Delft since April 2024, awaiting the installation of optics and detectors before deployment to the telescope. The base temperature achieved in Delft is approximately 45 mK, with the cool-down process completed remotely.
Below: the ASTE telescope five-stars location.
