Electron and Proton Beam Testing of Pixelated Solid State Detectors (Postprint)

Abstract

Abstract : The importance of using beam testing to measure the angular response of particle instruments is illustrated through the development cycle of the Fixed Sensor Head (FSH) instrument that will be flown on the US Air Force s Demonstration and Science eXperiment (DSX) mission. During its construction, the FSH was tested using particle beams many times and each test yielded an important result that contributed to the design of the instrument before being delivered in Aug. 2010. After several lower energy (30 keV) beam calibration tests at Hanscom Air Force Base demonstrated that the FSH was performing very well, a final, higher energy (150 keV E 1 MeV) beam test at the Goddard Space Flight Center was almost skipped due to budget and scheduling constraints. This final test illuminated a major problem with the biasing of a detector guard ring that would have been difficult if not impossible to track down on orbit. The problem was easily fixed, but serves to highlight the necessity of testing instruments across the entire range of possible stimuli that they may encounter.