PQ/ESO/21/107454/MGUN for the Micro TCA Air-cooled Shelf

NGCII (New Generic Controller – Generation 2) is the working title of the ESO-developed detector controller for all future ELT instruments and VLT instrument upgrades. The controller hardware is implemented in an industry-standard modular rack form factor, MicroTCA.4 (Micro Telecommunications Computing Architecture Version 4). The MTCA.4 shelf hosts all AMC and RTM modules. An air-cooled, compact 19” 2U form factor shelf is required for each detector controller system featuring 6 AMC/RTM slots. The delivery shall also contain a MicroTCA.4 Carrier Hub (MCH), MicroTCA.4 power supply unit (PSU) and JTAG Switch Module (JSM) for each shelf thus forming the minimum viable system that will then be further populated at ESO during integration. It is anticipated that fully compliant shelves are available as off-the-shelf products or that off-the-shelf products can be modified with small effort to make them fully compliant. Some additional challenges may lie in the exceptional operating environment of the ELT.