IceCube Project
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is the first detector of its kind, designed to observe the cosmos from deep within the South Pole ice. An international group of scientists responsible for the scientific research makes up the IceCube Collaboration.
Encompassing a cubic kilometer of ice, IceCube searches for nearly massless subatomic particles called neutrinos. These high-energy astronomical messengers provide information to probe the most violent astrophysical sources: events like exploding stars, gamma-ray bursts, and cataclysmic phenomena involving black holes and neutron stars.
The Antarctic neutrino observatory, which also includes the surface array IceTop and the dense infill array DeepCore, was designed as a multipurpose experiment. IceCube collaborators address several big questions in physics, like the nature of dark matter and the properties of the neutrino itself. IceCube also observes cosmic rays that interact with the Earth’s atmosphere, which have revealed fascinating structures that are not presently understood.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) provided the primary funding for the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, with assistance from partner funding agencies around the world. The University of Wisconsin–Madison is the lead institution, responsible for the maintenance and operations of the detector. Funding Agencies in each collaborating country support their scientific research efforts.
More info on the project can be found on the link https://icecube.wisc.edu/about/overview
The Detector
IceCube is the first gigaton neutrino detector ever built and was primarily designed to observe neutrinos from the most violent astrophysical sources in our universe. Neutrinos, almost massless particles with no electric charge, can travel from their sources to Earth with essentially no attenuation and no deflection by magnetic fields.
The in-ice component of IceCube consists of 5,160 digital optical modules (DOMs), each with a ten-inch photomultiplier tube and associated electronics. The DOMs are attached to vertical “strings,” frozen into 86 boreholes, and arrayed over a cubic kilometer from 1,450 meters to 2,450 meters depth. The strings are deployed on a hexagonal grid with 125 meters spacing and hold 60 DOMs each. The vertical separation of the DOMs is 17 meters.
Eight of these strings at the center of the array were deployed more compactly, with a horizontal separation of about 70 meters and a vertical DOM spacing of 7 meters. This denser configuration forms the DeepCore subdetector, which lowers the neutrino energy threshold to about 10 GeV, creating the opportunity to study neutrino oscillations.
More Info about the detector can be found on the link https://icecube.wisc.edu/science/icecube/detector
The research updates are posted on the link https://icecube.wisc.edu/science/highlights
Our high voltage division was honoured by principals from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a "Key Partner Award", recognizing us as a key supplier to Project ICECUBE. The award recognizes exceptional design, reliability, and delivery.
We were selected for the award because of the company's design and manufacture of the high voltage power supplies used in 5,000 Digital Optical Modules (Photomultiplier tubes) buried two-kilometre-deep in the Antarctic polar ice at the South Pole. These custom devices must survive for more than 20 years in the South Pole's harsh environment. There, they are buried in deep ice at minus 40 degree centigrade, with no opportunity for repair. As only a three-month work window exists at the South Pole each year, on-time delivery was vital and our manufacturing team successfully rose to the challenge.