Structural and thermal modeling of a cooled CCD camera

摘要

This paper presents structural and thermal modeling of a high-performance CCD camera designed to operate under severe environments. Minimizing the dark current noise required the CCD to be maintained at low temperature while the camera operated in a 70℃ environment. A thermoelectric cooler (TEC) was selected due to its simplicity, and relatively low cost. Minimizing the thermal parasitic loads due to conduction and convection, and maximizing the heat sink performance was critical in this design. The critical structural features of this camera are the CCD leads and the bond joint that holds the CCD in alignment relative to the lens. The CCD leads are susceptible to fatigue failure when subjected to random vibrations for an extended period of time. This paper outlines the methods used to model and analyze the CCD leads for fatigue, the supportive vibration testing performed and the steps taken to correct for structural inadequacies found in the original design. The key results of all this thermal and structural modeling and testing are presented.