Performance of large format 2Kx2K MBE grown HgCdTe Hawaii-2RG arrays for low flux applications

VLT instruments increasingly require high sensitivity large format focal planes. Adaptive optics combined with multiple integral field units feeding high resolution spectrographs drive the pixel performance as well as the array format. Three VLT instruments, the wide field imager Hawk-I [1] and the integral field spectrographs SINFONI [2] and KMOS [3] will be equipped with MBE-grown HgCdTe Hawaii-2RG arrays, which have a cut-off wavelength of 2.5 micron. The Hawaii-2RG array was originally developed for the near infrared camera of JWST having a cut-off wavelength of 5 micron [4]. The Hawaii-2RG multiplexer is one of the most advanced readout architectures offering a large variety of operating modes. A special 32 channel package has been developed which allows reading out all 32 output channels of the detector in parallel [7]. Symmetric cryogenic CMOS operational amplifiers are placed next to the focal plane instead of using ASIC's which are not yet available. The internal bus of the detector is accessed directly, bypassing the on-chip buffer amplifier. Noise performance employing different techniques of using reference pixels is discussed. Basic performance characteristics of the Hawaii-2RG arrays will be presented. Unlike LPE arrays, which lose quantum efficiency at lower temperatures, MBE arrays with lambda(c)=2.5mum do not show this effect. However, the MBE arrays under test still suffer from persistence.