FRIDA diffraction limited NIR instrument: the challenges of its verification processes

FRIDA (inFRared Imager and Dissector for the Adaptive optics system of the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC)) is designed as a diffraction limited instrument that will offer broad and narrow band imaging and integral field spectroscopy capabilities with low, intermediate and high (R similar to 30,000) spectral resolutions, to operate in the wavelength range 0.9 -2.5 mu m. The integral field unit is based on a monolithic image slicer and the imaging and IFS observing modes will use the same Teledyne 2Kx2K detector. FRIDA will be based on a Nasmyth B of GTC, behind the adaptive optics (AO) system. The key scientific objectives of the instrument include studies of solar system bodies, low mass objects, circumstellar outflow phenomena in advanced stages of stellar evolution, active galactic nuclei high redshift galaxies, including resolved stellar populations, semidetached binary systems, young stellar objects and star forming environments. FRIDA subsystems are presently being manufactured and tested. In this paper we present the challenges to perform the verification of some critical specifications of a cryogenic and diffraction limited NIR instrument as FRIDA. FRIDA is a collaborative project between the main GTC partners, namely, Spain, Mexico and Florida.