0000000000060844
AUTHOR
Peter Lechner
DEPFET Macropixel Detectors for MIXS: First Electrical Qualification Measurements
The Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (MIXS) is one of the instruments on board the Mercury Planetary Orbiter of the fifth European Space Agency (ESA) cornerstone mission BepiColombo. This spectrometer comprises two instruments and allows imaging X-ray spectroscopy of the Mercurian surface. The focal plane arrays for the energy and spatial resolved detection of X-rays are based on depleted P-channel FET (DEPFET) macropixel detectors. We report on the first electrical qualification measurements of DEPFET macropixel flight hardware, which are done at room temperature. The measurement of the transistor properties of all DEPFET pixels allows the selection of 100% electrically defect-free devic…
The IXO Wide-Field Imager
The Wide Field Imager (WFI) of the International X-ray Observatory (IXO) is an X-ray imaging spectrometer based on a large monolithic DePFET (Depleted P-channel Field Effect Transistor) Active Pixel Sensor. Filling an area of 10 × 10 cm² with a format of 1024 × 1024 pixels it will cover a field of view of 18 arcmin. The pixel size of 100 × 100 μm² corresponds to a fivefold oversampling of the telescope's expected 5 arcsec point spread function. The WFI's basic DePFET structure combines the functionalities of sensor and integrated amplifier with nearly Fano-limited energy resolution and high efficiency from 100 eV to 15 keV. The development of dedicated control and amplifier ASICs allows for…
The Wide Field Imager of the International X-ray Observatory
The International X-ray Observatory (IXO) will be a joint X-ray observatory mission by ESA, NASA and JAXA. It will have a large effective area (3 m 2 at 1.25 keV) grazing incidence mirror system with good angular resolution (5 arcsec at 0.1–10 keV) and will feature a comprehensive suite of scientific instruments: an X-ray Microcalorimeter Spectrometer, a High Time Resolution Spectrometer, an X-ray Polarimeter, an X-ray Grating Spectrometer, a Hard X-ray Imager and a Wide-Field Imager. The Wide Field Imager (WFI) has a field-of-view of 18 ft � 18 ft. It will be sensitive between 0.1 and 15 keV, offer the full angular resolution of the mirrors and good energy resolution. The WFI will be imple…
The wide field imager for the International X-ray Observatory
The large collecting area of the X-ray optics on the International X-ray Observatory (IXO), their good angular resolution, the wide bandwidth of X-ray energies and the high radiation tolerance required for the X-ray detectors in the focal plane have stimulated a new development of devices which unify all those science driven specifications in one single detector. The concept of a monolithic, back-illuminated silicon active pixel sensor (APS) based on the DEPFET structure is proposed for the IXO mission, being a fully depleted, back-illuminated 450 μm thick detector with a physical size of about 10 × 10 cm 2 corresponding to the 18 arcmin field of view. The backside will be covered with an i…
The wide-field imager for IXO: status and future activities
The Wide Field Imager (WFI) of the International X-ray Observatory (IXO) is an X-ray imaging spectrometer based on a large monolithic DePFET (Depleted P-channel Field Effect Transistor) Active Pixel Sensor. Filling an area of 10 x 10 cm2 with a format of 1024 x 1024 pixels it will cover a field of view of 18 arcmin. The pixel size of 100 x 100 μm2 corresponds to a fivefold oversampling of the telescope's expected 5 arcsec point spread function. The WFI's basic DePFET structure combines the functionalities of sensor and integrated amplifier with nearly Fano-limited energy resolution and high efficiency from 100 eV to 15 keV. The development of dedicated control and amplifier ASICs allows for…
The miniaturised Mössbauer spectrometer MIMOS IIA: Increased sensitivity and new capability for elemental analysis
The Miniaturised Mossbauer Spectrometers MIMOS II on board the two Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) have now been collecting valuable scientific data for more than five years. Mossbauer Spectrometers are part of two future missions: Phobos Grunt (Russian Space Agency) and a joint ESA—NASA Rover in 2018. The new advanced MIMOS IIA instrument described in this paper uses Silicon Drift Detectors (SDD) allowing also X-ray fluorescence chemical analysis (XRF) simultaneously to Mossbauer acquisitions. This paper highlights the features and technological improvements of the new spectrometer MIMOS IIA.
DEPFET based Instrumentation for the MIXS focal plane on BepiColombo
BepiColombo, ESA's fifth cornerstone mission, is a planetary exploration mission to Mercury. On board of BepiColombo's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO), the MIXS instrument will perform a complete X-ray fluorescence analysis of Mercury's crust with unprecedented spectral and spatial resolution. This is achieved by using a lightweight X-ray mirror system and by using of DEPFET based Macropixel devices as X-ray detectors. DEPFET based Macropixel detectors combine the advantages of the DEPFETs, like flexible readout modes, Fano-limited energy resolution and low power consumption, with the properties of the drift detectors, like arbitrary scalable pixel size and geometry. In addition, the excell…
APXS and MIMOS IIA: Planetary and terrestrial applications
Both Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and the Miniaturized Moessbauer Spectrometer (MIMOS II) have shown their performances in space missions and terrestrial applications. Taking advantage of the challenges of space missions both instruments have become very powerful tools, even small in mass and dimensions.
The DEPFET based Focal Plane Detectors for MIXS on BepiColombo
X-ray detectors based on arrays of DEPFET macropixels, which consist of a silicon drift detector combined with a detector/amplifier structure DEPFET as readout node, provide a convenient and flexible way to adapt the pixel size of a focal plane detector to the resolving power of any given X-ray optical system. Macropixels combine the traditional benefits of an SDD, like scalability, arbitrary geometry and excellent QE even in the low energy range, with the advantages of DEPFET structures: Charge storage capability, near Fano-limited energy resolution, low power consumption and high speed readout. Being part of the scientific payload of ESA's BepiColombo mission, the MIXS instrument will be …
First results from electrical qualification measurements on DEPFET pixel detector
We report on the first results from a new setup for electrical qualification measurements of DEPFET pixel detector matrices. In order to measure the transistor properties of all pixels, the DEPFET device is placed into a benchtest setup and electrically contacted via a probecard. Using a switch matrix, each pixel of the detector array can be addressed individually for characterization. These measurements facilitate to pre-select the best DEPFET matrices as detector device prior to the mounting of the matrix and allow to investigate topics like the homogeneity of transistor parameters on device, wafer and batch level in order to learn about the stability and reproducibility of the production…