University of Zurich and ETH Zurich
The group at the Institute of Geophysics of ETH is involved in the development and building of the Inertial Sensor Front End Electronics (IS FEE) for LISA Pathfinder in collaboration with Swiss industry. IS FEE includes all electronics devolved to the test mass (sensor) position and attitude control, displacement and attitude measurement, biasing and dithering, power supply and basic acquisition and control software, but excluding data processing and experiment management and control. IS FEE is organized around two identical Sensing & Actuation Units (SAU) serving each sensor and one common Power Converter Unit. The challenging goal of SAU electronics is the sub-nanometer sensing and positioning of the test mass in the ultra-low frequency band (mHz). The IS FEE flight unit has already been delivered and is now undergoing extensive tests.
Institute of Theoretical Physics of the University of Zurich
Prof. Ph. Jetzer (Group leader)
http://www.itp.uzh.ch/index.html
Institute of Geophysics of ETH Zurich
Prof. D. Giardini (Group leader), P. Zweifel and D. Mance
