CCAT-prime: Science Goals & First Light 280 GHz Instrumentation*

The CCAT-prime Collaboration's Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope (FYST) is a six-meter aperture telescope currently being built to observe at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths in Chile's Atacama desert on Cerro Chajnantor and expected to begin science observations in 2024. Prime-Cam, the primary first generation science instrument, will house up to seven total instrument modules, including both polarimetric broadband and imaging spectrometer modules, to simultaneously observe the sky from 210-850 GHz using kinetic inductance detectors. By capitalizing on FYST's extraordinary site at an elevation of 5600 meters, Prime-Cam will enable a more than 10 times improvement in mapping speed over current and near-term submillimeter facilities. CCAT-prime will serve as a complement to upcoming CMB surveys and pursue a broad range of science goals, including tracing galaxy formation during the Epoch of Reionization, probing star formation within the Milky Way, and studying time-domain variability at submillimeter wavelengths. We present the science goals, instrument designs, and status for Prime-Cam on FYST, with a particular emphasis on the detectors and readout for the first light 280 GHz Instrument Module.