SITAEL has been awarded a contract by INFN for the electronics of the first prototype Large Size Telescope (LST) of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) experiment. CTA is a next-generation observatory to perform ground-based gamma-ray Astrophysics. It will consist of an array of several tens of telescopes, to be distributed in two sites, in the Northern and in the Southern Hemisphere.

The CTA collaboration is currently building the LST prototype in the northern site, at the Observatory “Roque de los Muchachos” on the island of “La Palma” (Canary Islands, Spain). Its 23-m diameter mirror will convey the light on a PMT-based camera, with dedicated electronics for a very fast sampling and processing of the signals. INFN, together with Kyoto research group (Japan), has been deeply involved in the design and development of the camera electronics.

SITAEL, the largest privately-owned Space company in Italy, has over 20 years experience in developing electronics for Scientific Space experiments. With its involvement in CTA, SITAEL expands its field of action to ground-based Astrophysics, where it will bring the expertise in high-reliability electronics gained from the Space missions.