High-reliability coolers under development at Signaal-USFA

Abstract

Since 1997, Signaal Usfa has been working on the development of high reliability cryocoolers. These coolers have been developed with the aim to eliminate the lifetime determining factors of conventional cryogenic tactical coolers. The intention of this study was the development of a family of cryocoolers, which could be used to cover a large range of cooling powers. Today, these developments have resulted in the new range of flexure bearing cryocoolers currently available at Signaal Usfa, with cooling performances between 0.5 and 3 W at 80K and estimated lifetimes of more than 20,000 hours MTTF.