New evaluation concept of the Athena WFI camera system by emulation of X-ray DEPFET detectors

Abstract

The Wide Field Imager (WFI) is an X-ray camera for the future observatory Athena as the next ESA L-class mission. The signal processing chain of the WFI reaches from the sensing of incoming photons to the telemetry transmission to the spacecraft. Up to now the signal processing chain is verified with measurements of real X-ray sources, thus only limited test scenarios are possible. This paper presents a new concept for evaluating the X-ray camera system. Therefore a new end-to-end evaluation is proposed, which makes use of a programmable real-time emulator of the WFI DEPFET detector system including front-end electronics. With a complete variation of all available input parameters significant characteristics of the camera system can be studied and evaluated. This end-to-end evaluation method is a powerful tool to support the development of the WFI camera setup not only in the early stage, but also to improve characteristics and complex processing algorithms of the WFI when it will be in orbit.