Abstract
We have assembled a tiled array (220 cm2) of fine pixel (0.6 mm) imaging CZT detectors for a balloon borne wide-field hard X-ray telescope, ProtoEXIST2. ProtoEXIST2 is a prototype experiment for a next generation hard X-ray imager MIRAX-HXI on board Lattes, a spacecraft from the Agencia Espacial Brasilieira. MIRAX will survey the 5 to 200 keV sky of Galactic bulge, adjoining southern Galactic plane and the extragalactic sky with 6' angular resolution. This survey will open a vast discovery space in timing studies of accretion neutron stars and black holes. The ProtoEXIST2 CZT detector plane consists of 64 of 5 mm thick 2 cm x 2 cm CZT crystals tiled with a minimal gap. MIRAX will consist of 4 such detector planes, each of which will be imaged with its own coded-aperture mask. We present the packaging architecture and assembly procedure of the ProtoEXIST2 detector. On 2012, Oct 10, we conducted a successful high altitude balloon experiment of the ProtoEXIST1 and 2 telescopes, which demonstrates their technology readiness for space application. During the flight both telescopes performed as well as on the ground. We report the results of ground calibration and the initial results for the detector performance in the balloon flight.
Highlights
A main challenge for future hard X-ray (~5 to 200 keV) survey telescopes comes from a need for large area hard X-ray sensors with fine spatial resolution
P1 & P2 are our on-going balloon-borne wide-field hard X-ray telescope experiments to advance the technology for CZT detector and coded-aperture imaging for generation hard X-ray survey telescopes
P2 can localize hard X-ray sources within 40′′ accuracy or better at 90% confidence (1′ for Monitor e Imageador de RAios-X (MIRAX)-Hard X-ray Imager (HXI)). This means that typical longer wavelength telescopes with a few arcmin scale Field of View (FoV) can follow up on a newly discovered source without an additional positional refinement to ensure that the FoV includes the source
Summary
A main challenge for future hard X-ray (~5 to 200 keV) survey telescopes comes from a need for large area hard X-ray sensors with fine spatial resolution. The Hard X-ray Imager (HXI) on Monitor e Imageador de RAios-X (MIRAX), a generation wide-field hard X-ray survey telescope, will make use of recent advances in CZT detector technology. P1 & P2 are our on-going balloon-borne wide-field hard X-ray telescope experiments to advance the technology for CZT detector and coded-aperture imaging for generation hard X-ray survey telescopes. P2 can localize hard X-ray sources within 40′′ accuracy or better at 90% confidence (1′ for MIRAX-HXI) This means that typical longer wavelength telescopes with a few arcmin scale FoV can follow up on a newly discovered source without an additional positional refinement to ensure that the FoV includes the source. For onboard calibration of the spectral gain and dead time measurement during the flight, we mounted a 220 nCi 241Am radioactive source for each telescope at ~36 cm above the detector plane in the side shields
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