0000000000206161
AUTHOR
Markus Plattner
The Wide Field Imager instrument for Athena
ESA's next large X-ray mission ATHENA is designed to address the Cosmic Vision science theme 'The Hot and Energetic Universe'. It will provide answers to the two key astrophysical questions how does ordinary matter assemble into the large-scale structures we see today and how do black holes grow and shape the Universe. The ATHENA spacecraft will be equipped with two focal plane cameras, a Wide Field Imager (WFI) and an X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU). The WFI instrument is optimized for state-of-The-Art resolution spectroscopy over a large field of view of 40 amin x 40 amin and high count rates up to and beyond 1 Crab source intensity. The cryogenic X-IFU camera is designed for high-spect…
The filter and calibration wheel for the ATHENA wide field imager
The planned filter and calibration wheel for the Wide Field Imager (WFI) instrument on Athena is presented. With four selectable positions it provides the necessary functions, in particular an UV/VIS blocking filter for the WFI detectors and a calibration source. Challenges for the filter wheel design are the large volume and mass of the subsystem, the implementation of a robust mechanism and the protection of the ultra-thin filter with an area of 160 mm square. This paper describes performed trade-offs based on simulation results and describes the baseline design in detail. Reliable solutions are envisaged for the conceptual design of the filter and calibration wheel. Four different varian…
Development of the wide field imager for Athena
The WFI (Wide Field Imager) instrument is planned to be one of two complementary focal plane cameras on ESA's next X-ray observatory Athena. It combines unprecedented survey power through its large field of view of 40 arcmin x 40 arcmin together with excellent count-rate capability (>= 1 Crab). The energy resolution of the silicon sensor is state-of-the-art in the energy band of interest from 0.2 keV to 15 keV, e.g. the full width at half maximum of a line at 6 keV will be <= 150 eV until the end of the nominal mission phase. This performance is accomplished by using DEPFET active pixel sensors with a pixel size of 130 μm x 130 μm well suited to the on-axis angular resolution of 5 arcsec of…