Zachary R. Prieskorn

The X-Ray Surveyor Mission: A Concept Study

NASAs Chandra X-ray Observatory continues to provide an unparalleled means for exploring the high-energy universe. With its half-arcsecond angular resolution, Chandra studies have deepened our understanding of galaxy clusters, active galactic nuclei, galaxies, supernova remnants, neutron stars, black holes, and solar system objects. As we look beyond Chandra, it is clear that comparable or even better angular resolution with greatly increased photon throughput is essential to address ever more demanding science questions—such as the formation and growth of black hole seeds at very high redshifts; the emergence of the first galaxy groups; and details of feedback over a large range of scales from galaxies to galaxy clusters. Recently, we initiated a concept study for such a mission, dubbed X-ray Surveyor. The X-ray Surveyor strawman payload is comprised of a high-resolution mirror assembly and an instrument set, which may include an X-ray microcalorimeter, a high-definition imager, and a dispersive grating spectrometer and its readout. The mirror assembly will consist of highly nested, thin, grazing-incidence mirrors, for which a number of technical approaches are currently under development—including adjustable X-ray optics, differential deposition, and new polishing techniques applied to a variety of substrates. This study benefits from previous studies of large missions carried out over the past two decades and, in most areas, points to mission requirements no more stringent than those of Chandra.

Speedster-EXD: a new event-driven hybrid CMOS x-ray detector

Abstract. The Speedster-EXD is a new 64×64  pixel2, 40-μm  pixel pitch, 100-μm depletion depth hybrid CMOS x-ray detector with the capability of reading out only those pixels containing event charge, thus enabling fast effective frame rates. A global charge threshold can be specified, and pixels containing charge above this threshold are flagged and read out. The Speedster detector has also been designed with other advanced in-pixel features to improve performance, including a low-noise, high-gain capacitive transimpedance amplifier that eliminates interpixel capacitance crosstalk (IPC), and in-pixel correlated double sampling subtraction to reduce reset noise. We measure the best energy resolution on the Speedster-EXD detector to be 206 eV (3.5%) at 5.89 keV and 172 eV (10.0%) at 1.49 keV. The average IPC to the four adjacent pixels is measured to be 0.25%±0.2% (i.e., consistent with zero). The pixel-to-pixel gain variation is measured to be 0.80%±0.03%, and a Monte Carlo simulation is applied to better characterize the contributions to the energy resolution.

BURST FLUENCE DISTRIBUTIONS OF SOFT GAMMA REPEATERS 1806-20 AND 1900+14 IN THE ROSSI X-RAY TIMING EXPLORER PCA ERA

We study the fluence distributions of over 3040 bursts from SGR 1806–20 and over 1963 bursts from SGR 1900+14 using the complete set of observations available from the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer/Proportional Counter Array through 2011 March. Cumulative event distributions are presented for both sources and are fitted with single and broken power laws as well as an exponential cutoff. The distributions are best fitted by a broken power law with exponential cutoff; however the statistical significance of the cutoff is not high and the upper portion of the broken power law can be explained as the expected number of false bursts due to random noise fluctuations. Event distributions are also examined in high and low burst rate regimes and power-law indices are found to be consistent, independent of the burst rate. The contribution function of the event fluence is calculated. This distribution shows that the energy released in the soft gamma repeater (SGR) bursts is dominated by the most powerful events for both sources. The power-law nature of these distributions combined with the dominant energy dissipation of the system occurring in the large, less frequent bursts is indicative of a self-organized critical system, as suggested by Gogus et al. in 1999.

Recent Progress on Developments and Characterization of Hybrid CMOS X-ray Detectors

Future space-based X-ray telescope missions are likely to have significantly increased demands on detector read out rates due to increased collection area, and there will be a desire to minimize radiation damage in the interests of maintaining spectral resolution. While CCDs have met the requirements of past missions, active pixel sensors are likely to be a standard choice for some future missions due to their inherent radiation hardness and fast, flexible read-out architecture. One form of active pixel sensor is the hybrid CMOS sensor. In a joint program of Penn State University and Teledyne Imaging Sensors, hybrid CMOS sensors have been developed for use as X-ray detectors. Results of this development effort and tests of fabricated detectors will be presented, along with potential applications for future missions.

Characterization of an x-ray hybrid CMOS detector with low interpixel capacitive crosstalk

We present the results of x-ray measurements on a hybrid CMOS detector that uses a H2RG ROIC and a unique bonding structure. The silicon absorber array has a 36μm pixel size, and the readout array has a pitch of 18μm; but only one readout circuit line is bonded to each 36x36μm absorber pixel. This unique bonding structure gives the readout an effective pitch of 36μm. We find the increased pitch between readout bonds significantly reduces the interpixel capacitance of the CMOS detector reported by Bongiorno et al. 20101 and Kenter et al. 2005.2

ZnO thin film transistors and electronic connections for adjustable x-ray mirrors: SMART-X telescope

The proposed SMART-X telescope consists of a pixelated array of a piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin film deposited on flexible glass substrates. These cells or pixels are used to actively control the overall shape of the mirror surface. It is anticipated that the telescope will consist of 8,000 mirror panels with 400-800 cells on each panel. This creates an enormous number (6.4 million) of traces and contacts needed to address the PZT. In order to simplify the design, a row/column addressing scheme using ZnO thin film transistors (TFTs) is proposed. In addition, connection of the gate and drain lines on the mirror segment to an external supply via a flexible cable was investigated through use of an anisotropic conductive film (ACF). This paper outlines the design of the ZnO TFTs, use of ACF for bonding, and describes a specially designed electronics box with associated software to address the desired cells.

Recent progress and development of a speedster-EXD: a new event-triggered hybrid CMOS x-ray detector

We present the characterization of a new event-driven X-ray hybrid CMOS detector developed by Penn State University in collaboration with Teledyne Imaging Sensors. Along with its low susceptibility to radiation damage, low power consumption, and fast readout time to avoid pile-up, the Speedster-EXD has been designed with the capability to limit its readout to only those pixels containing charge, thus enabling even faster effective frame rates. The threshold for the comparator in each pixel can be set by the user so that only pixels with signal above the set threshold are read out. The Speedster-EXD hybrid CMOS detector also has two new in-pixel features that reduce noise from known noise sources: (1) a low-noise, high-gain CTIA amplifier to eliminate crosstalk from interpixel capacitance (IPC) and (2) in-pixel CDS subtraction to reduce kTC noise. We present the read noise, dark current, IPC, energy resolution, and gain variation measurements of one Speedster-EXD detector.

The speedster-EXD: a new event-triggered hybrid CMOS x-ray detector

We present preliminary characterization of the Speedster-EXD, a new event driven hybrid CMOS detector (HCD) developed in collaboration with Penn State University and Teledyne Imaging Systems. HCDs have advantages over CCDs including lower susceptibility to radiation damage, lower power consumption, and faster read-out time to avoid pile-up. They are deeply depleted and able to detect x-rays down to approximately 0.1 keV. The Speedster-EXD has additional in-pixel features compared to previously published HCDs including: (1) an in-pixel comparator that enables read out of only the pixels with signal from an x-ray event, (2) four different gain modes to optimize either full well capacity or energy resolution, (3) in-pixel CDS subtraction to reduce read noise, and (4) a low-noise, high-gain CTIA amplifier to eliminate interpixel capacitance crosstalk. When using the comparator feature, the user can set a comparator threshold and only pixels above the threshold will be read out. This feature can be run in two modes including single pixel readout in which only pixels above the threshold are read out and 3x3 readout where a 3×3 region centered on the central pixel of the X-ray event is read out. The comparator feature of the Speedster-EXD increases the detector array effective frame rate by orders of magnitude. The new features of the Speedster-EXD hybrid CMOS x-ray detector are particularly relevant to future high throughput x-ray missions requiring large-format silicon imagers.

Optics for Nano-Satellite X-Ray Monitor

Abstract The Schmidt lobster eye design for a grazing incidence X-ray optics provides a field of view of the order of many degrees, for this reason it can be a convenient approach for the construction of space X-ray monitors. It is possible to assemble Schmidt lobster eye telescopes with the dimensions and focal lengths acceptable for nano-class satellites. In this paper, a draft of nano-class space mission providing monitoring of specific sky areas is presented. A preliminary optical design study for such mission is performed. Two of possible optical designs are presented, for which the field of view, the effective input area and other basic optical parameters are calculated. Examples of the observed images are also presented.

Soft x-ray quantum efficiency of silicon hybrid CMOS detectors

Si Hybrid CMOS detectors (HCDs) are sensitive to X-rays between approximately 0.2 – 20 keV. HCDs can provide superior performance to traditional CCDs in multiple areas: faster read out time, windowed read out mode, less susceptible to radiation & micrometeoroid damage, and lower power consumption. X-ray detectors designed for use in astronomical observatories must have an optical blocking filter to prevent the detectors from being saturated by optical light. We have previously reported on the successful deposition of an Al optical blocking layer directly onto the surface of HCDs. These blocking filters were deposited with multiple thicknesses from 180 – 1000 Å and successfully block optical light at all thicknesses, with minimal impact expected on quantum efficiency at the energies of interest for these detectors. The thin Al layer is not expected to impact quantum efficiency at the energies of interest for these detectors. We report energy dependent soft X-ray quantum efficiency measurements for multiple HCDs with different optical blocking filter thicknesses.