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The Dark Energy Survey CCD imager was constructed at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and delivered to the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile for installation onto the Blanco 4m telescope. Several efforts are described relating to preparation of the instrument for transport, development and testing of a shipping crate designed to minimize transportation loads transmitted to the camera, and inspection of the imager upon arrival at the observatory. Transportation loads were monitored and are described. For installation of the imager at the telescope prime focus, where it mates with its previously-installed optical corrector, specialized tooling was developed to safely lift, support, and position the vessel. The installation and removal processes were tested on the Telescope Simulator mockup at FNAL, thus minimizing technical and schedule risk for the work performed at CTIO. Final installation of the imager is scheduled for August 2012.

The Dark Energy Camera is a new prime-focus instrument to be delivered to the Blanco 4-meter telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in 2011. Construction is in-progress at this time at Fermilab. In order to verify that the camera meets technical specifications for the Dark Energy Survey and to reduce the time required to commission the instrument while it is on the telescope, we are constructing a "Telescope Simulator" and performing full system testing prior to shipping to CTIO. This presentation will describe the Telescope Simulator and how we use it to verify some of the technical specifications.

The Dark Energy Camera (DECam) is the new wide field prime-focus imager for the Blanco 4m telescope at CTIO. This instrument is a 2.2 sq. deg. camera with a 45 cm diameter focal plane consisting of 62 2k × 4k CCDs and 12 2k × 2k CCDs and was developed for the Dark Energy Survey that will start operations at CTIO in 2011. DECam includes the vessel shell, the optical window cell, the CCDs with their readout electronics and vacuum interface, the focal plane support plate and its mounts, and the cooling system and thermal controls. Assembly of the imager, alignment of the focal plane and installation of the CCDs are described. During DECam development a full scale prototype was used for multi-CCD readout tests. This test vessel went through several stages as the CCDs and related hardware progressed from early prototypes to final production designs.

DECam is a 520 Mpix, 3 square-deg FOV imager being built for the Blanco 4m Telescope at CTIO. This facility instrument will be used for the 'Dark Energy Survey' of the southern galactic cap. DECam has chosen 250 ?m thick CCDs, developed at LBNL, with good QE in the near IR for the focal plane. In this work we present the characterization of these detectors done by the DES team, and compare it to the DECam technical requirements. The results demonstrate that the detectors satisfy the needs for instrument.

The Dark Energy Survey Camera focal plane array will consist of 62 2k x 4k CCDs with a pixel size of 15 microns and a silicon thickness of 250 microns for use at wavelengths between 400 and 1000 nm. Bare CCD die will be received from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). At the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the bare die will be packaged into a custom back-side-illuminated module design. Cold probe data from LBNL will be used to select the CCDs to be packaged. The module design utilizes an aluminum nitride readout board and spacer and an Invar foot. A module flatness of 3 microns over small (1 sqcm) areas and less than 10 microns over neighboring areas on a CCD are required for uniform images over the focal plane. A confocal chromatic inspection system is being developed to precisely measure flatness over a grid up to 300 x 300 mm. This system will be utilized to inspect not only room-temperature modules, but also cold individual modules and partial arrays through flat dewar windows.