14 POWER MODULES www.vicorpower.com Issue 1 2025 Power Electronics Europe www.power-mag.com Microgate helps penetrate deep space to unlock secrets of the Universe Adaptive optics using precision power conversion technologies enable world-changing discoveries Established in 1989 by brothers Vinicio and Roberto Biasi, Microgate built its early reputation providing highly accurate timing devices for professional sports and racing events. Driven by a focus on extreme precision, the company soon expanded its technology to space exploration, emanating from Roberto’s advanced training in adaptive optics, which inspired the design of a linear motor-driven control system for massive earth-based telescope installations. Enabling deep space exploration with colossal telescopes The European Southern Observatory (ESO) is an intergovernmental, ground-based astronomy research organization comprising 16 member states and is working with Microgate to build the adaptive mirror for the next and largest generation of Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs). ELTs use primary mirrors with diameters in the 30-meter range – or in the case of the ESO-ELT an even more impressive 39meter diameter. The objective of these telescopes is to capture light from the Figure 1: Microgate builds the highly sophisticated adaptive-optics mirror for the ESO Extremely Large Telescope. The optics, powered by high-density DC-DC converter modules, correct for atmospheric disturbances to extract more light, achieving higher resolution imaging. Figure 2: ESO’s telescopes helped Andrea Ghez and Reinhard Genzel win the Nobel prize in Physics in 2020 for the discovery of the supermassive black hole in the Milky Way’s galactic centre. distant past to learn more about the early Universe. This requires a large primary mirror to collect the very few photons that can be captured from distant stars and galaxies. Unlike the Hubble or James Webb space telescopes, this Earth-based method of exploring the deep space has several advantages. According to The Astronomy Enthusiast, ground telescopes have an advantage of size – noting that the largest Earth-based telescope is 23 times larger than the Hubble. Ground telescopes can also be located anywhere on the planet and are easily upgradeable using the latest technology, while their counterparts in space are far more difficult to maintain and upgrade once launched. ESO’s existing telescopes have made possible several ground-breaking discoveries. For example, using the organization’s facilities, astronomers tracked the movement of stars in the extreme gravitational field at the center of our galaxy, delivering convincing evidence that a supermassive black hole exists there. This discovery was recognized with the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics. Sophsticated adaptive optics compensate for wavefront aberrations enhancing visibility The ESO-ELT is situated atop Cerro Armazones in Chile’s Atacama Desert at an altitude of about 3,000 meters. The site
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