Development of Pulse Tube Cryocoolers at SITP for Space Application

Over the last 10 years, Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has developed very high-efficiency pulse tube cryocoolers (PTCs) for aerospace applications. These PTCs can provide cooling power from milliwatt scale to tens of watts over a range of temperatures from 30 to 170 K and can be used to cool a variety of detectors in space applications (such as quantum interference devices, radiometers and ocean color sensors) that must operate at a specific cryogenic temperature to increase the signal-to-noise ratio, sensitivity and optical resolution. This paper reviews the development of single-stage PTCs over a range of weights from 1.6 to 12 kg that offer cooling powers at the cold temperature range from 40 to 170 K. In addition, a two-stage 30 K-PTC is under development.