Design and performance of the eROSITA focal plane instrumentation

Abstract

We developed and tested X-ray PNCCD focal plane detectors for the eROSITA (extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array) space telescope. General scientific goal of the eROSITA project is the exploration of the X-ray universe in the energy band from about 0.2 keV up to 10 keV with excellent energy, time, and spatial resolution in combination with large effective telescope areas. The observational program divides into an all-sky survey and pointed observations. The mission duration is scheduled for 7.5 years. The German instrument will be launched in near future to the Lagrange point L2 on the Russian satellite SRG. The detection of single X-ray photons with precise information about their energy, angle of incidence and time is accomplished for eROSITA by an array of seven identical and independent PNCCD cameras. Each camera is assigned to a dedicated mirror system of Wolter-I type. The key component of the camera is a 5 cm • 3 cm large, back-illuminated, 450 μm thick and fully depleted frame store PNCCD chip. This chip is a further development of the sensor type that is in operation as focal plane detector on the XMMNewton satellite since launch in 1999 to date. Development and production of the CCDs for the eROSITA project were performed by the MPI Halbleiterlabor, as already in the past for the XMM-Newton project. According to the status of the project, a complete design of the seven flight cameras including the camera electronics and the filter wheel has been developed. Various functional and performance tests have been accomplished for a detailed characterization of the eROSITA camera system. We focus here especially on the focal plane detector design and the performance of the detectors, which are essential for the success of the X-ray astronomy space project.