SpectroCam's mechanical design is somewhat unusual for a mid-infrared instrument because almost the entire optical bench assembly is cooled with liquid nitrogen. Only the detector itself, its housing, and the filter wheel are cooled to 5 -- 6 K with liquid helium. By pumping a vacuum on the nitrogen and reducing its temperature to about 60 K, the optical bench thermal radiation that reaches the detector is reduced to well below the level entering through the dewar window, even in high-resolution spectrograph mode.
Some important specifications are listed in Table 1.5.