At the beginning of the SITP was built in 1958, the cryogenic department came into existence in order to meet the demand of the research on the cryogenic performance of the semiconductor material and device. The department produced nitrogen, hydrogen and helium cryogenic liquid. The research fields of SITP turned into the infrared technology in 1964, and the research subjects were redisposed, so we started to develop the minitype coolers. Since the 1970’s, SITP began to research the aviation and space remote sensing technology, which conduced the study and development of the minitype cryogenic technology.

The cryogenic department has achieved the prominent breakthroughs and developments in radiant coolers, long-life mechanical cryocoolers in the past thirty years. At the same time, a great of technological achievements had been obtained. We have studied and produced a lot of radiant coolers used for FY-1 and FY-2 and FY-3 series satellites. the composite cooler, the 651 unitary XXX cooler, minitype throttle cooler，GM cooler，VM cooler，and double droved split Striling cooler were also developed successfully. Up to 2002, the department had won 15 awards and 12 inventive and applied patents. The cryogenic department has developed almost 90 percent of the mini-type coolers which had been launched and used successfully in China.

Now, the cryogenic department has an excellent staff: 42 scientific research people, which includes 4 professors, 6 associate professors. The department has lots of test devices and precise instruments, such as: machnical test machine, the quadruple mass spectrograph, the helium leak detector device, the dynamic resistance stain gauge, Ф1.8M thermal vacuum test chamber and the roundness measuring equipment etc.. The cryogenic department has established a team which can design and develop the space minitype coolers by the efforts of the past years. It is one of the outstanding departments in the research field of space coolers in China.

The Research Director:dong,deping

The Deputy Research Director:wu,yannong