A prototype of the UV detector for METIS on Solar Orbiter

Abstract

METIS (Multi Element Telescope for Imaging and Spectroscopy) is one of the instruments included in the science payload of the ESA mission Solar Orbiter: a coronograph able to perform broadband polarization imaging in the visible range, and narrow band imaging in UV (HI Lyman-α) and EUV (HeII Lyman-α). In addition, it will acquire spectra of the solar corona simultaneously to UV/EUV imaging. It will be equipped with two detectors: a hybrid APS dedicated to the visible channel and an Intensified APS for the UV/EUV channel. The spectroscopic channel will share the same detector as the UV/EUV corona imaging, with the spectrum imaged on a portion of the detector not used by the corona image. We present the development of the UV/EUV detector consisting of a CMOS APS imaging device to be coupled with a microchannel plate intensifier. Other than constraints related to the harsh environment (radiation, temperature, visible stray-light), the METIS UV detector has the additional challenge of managing different count rates associated with the three different kind of measurements (UV imaging, EUV imaging and spectroscopy). The required dynamic range is further extended since observations will be planned at different distances from the Sun, varying image scale over a fixed vignetting function. We will present the architecture of this UV detector, describing the prototype developed in order to optimize the performance on the overall dynamic range required by METIS.