Focal Plane Instruments Research Articles

PAWS and POCO: NIR Astrophotonic Instruments for Astronomy

AbstractFor near‐infrared ground and space‐based astronomy, compact photonic devices can replace the large bulk optical components in spectrographs, frequency combs, beam combiners, and sky subtraction filters, thus saving cost, reducing volume, weight, and power requirements. Photonic integrated circuits (PICs), analogous to integrated circuits (IC) in electronics, are particularly powerful to address innovative miniaturized solutions. Here, we demonstrate two new instrument prototypes: the Potsdam Arrayed Waveguide Spectrograph (PAWS) built around an array waveguide grating (AWG) PIC and Hawaii2RG detector, and the Potsdam Comb (POCO), a frequency comb generated by nonlinear processes in a micro‐ring resonator photonic chip. PAWS is calibrated by the remotely located POCO via the fiber optic communication network of the Leibniz‐Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP). The vision of future astrophotonic solutions for instrumentation is pointing toward hybrid solutions of PIC and detector arrays that hold the promise to dramatically change the layout of telescope focal plane instrumentation.

In-orbit Performance of the Near-infrared Spectrograph NIRSpec on the James Webb Space Telescope

The Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) is one of the four focal plane instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope. In this paper, we summarize the in-orbit performance of NIRSpec, as derived from data collected during its commissioning campaign and the first few months of nominal science operations. More specifically, we discuss the performance of some critical hardware components such as the two NIRSpec Hawaii-2RG detectors, wheel mechanisms, and the microshutter array. We also summarize the accuracy of the two target acquisition procedures used to accurately place science targets into the slit apertures, discuss the current status of the spectrophotometric and wavelength calibration of NIRSpec spectra, and provide the “as measured” sensitivity in all NIRSpec science modes. Finally, we point out a few important considerations for the preparation of NIRSpec science programs.

TiEMPO: open-source time-dependent end-to-end model for simulating ground-based submillimeter astronomical observations

The next technological breakthrough in millimeter–submillimeter astronomy is three-dimensional imaging spectrometry with wide instantaneous spectral bandwidths and wide fields of view. The total optimization of the focal-plane instrument, the telescope, the observing strategy, and the signal-processing software must enable efficient removal of foreground emission from the Earth’s atmosphere, which is time-dependent and highly nonlinear in frequency. Here, we present Time-dependent End-to-end Model for Post-process Optimization (TiEMPO) of the DEep Spectroscopic HIgh-redshift MApper (DESHIMA) spectrometer. TiEMPO utilizes a dynamical model of the atmosphere and parameterized models of the astronomical source, the telescope, the instrument, and the detector. The output of TiEMPO is a time stream of sky brightness temperature and detected power, which can be analyzed by standard signal-processing software. We first compare TiEMPO simulations with an on-sky measurement by the wideband DESHIMA spectrometer, and find good agreement in the noise and sensitivity. We then use TiEMPO to simulate the detection of the line emission spectrum of a high-redshift galaxy using the DESHIMA 2.0 spectrometer in development. The TiEMPO model is open source. Its modular and parametrized design enables users to adapt it to optimize the end-to-end performance of spectroscopic and photometric instruments on existing and future telescopes.

Enhanced simulations on the Athena/Wide Field Imager instrumental background

The Wide Field Imager (WFI) is one of two focal plane instruments of the Advanced Telescope for High-Energy Astrophysics (Athena), ESA’s next large x-ray observatory, planned for launch in the early 2030s. The current baseline halo orbit is around L2, and the second Lagrangian point of the Sun-Earth system L1 is under consideration. For both potential halo orbits, the radiation environment, solar and cosmic protons, electrons, and He-ions will affect the performance of the instruments. A further critical contribution to the instrument background arises from the unfocused cosmic hard x-ray background. It is important to understand and estimate the expected instrumental background and to investigate measures, such as design modifications or analysis methods, which could improve the expected background level to achieve the challenging scientific requirement (<5 × 10 − 3 counts / cm2 / keV / s at 2 to 7 keV). Previous WFI background simulations done in Geant4 have been improved by taking into account new information about the proton flux at L2. In addition, the simulation model of the WFI instrument and its surroundings employed in Geant4 simulations has been refined to follow the technological development of the WFI camera.

Sentinel-3 active fire detection and FRP product performance - Impact of scan angle and SLSTR middle infrared channel selection

The Sentinel-3 satellites each carry the dual-Earth view Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR). SLSTR data from the ‘near nadir’ scan are used to produce a set of global, daily active fire (AF) products similar to those produced from MODIS data. The Sentinel-3 AF products are generated in both Near Real Time (NRT) and Non Time Critical (NTC) mode and are expected ultimately to replace those from MODIS Terra when that mission starts to reach its end of life. Middle infrared (MIR) observations are critical for the AF application, and SLSTR has two MIR channels (S7 and F1) based on different detector designs and located at different positions in the instrument focal plane, delivering different dynamic ranges with the same spectral response function. The SLSTR AF detection and FRP retrieval algorithm uses both S7 and F1 channel data, but there are options on how these are combined to generate the final AF products. Past work has shown that MODIS' AF product characteristics are strongly view zenith angle (VZA) dependent, and since the SLSTR ‘near nadir’ scan actually extends out to a maximum VZA of 55° (similar to the maximum MODIS VZA), any such view angle dependency may also impact the choice of how the S7 and F1 channel data are combined to generate the SLSTR AF products. Here we use a combination of simulation modelling and analysis of more than 15,000 early SLSTR AF products to study how VZA affects the Sentinel-3 AF product characteristics, and how this varies when the S7 and F1 channel data are combined in different ways. Maximum use of S7 channel data provides an AF product whose statistical characteristics vary markedly with VZA around the near nadir scan. For example, the median FRP extracted from the more than 15,000 products studied varies by around an order of magnitude between the centre and edge of scan positions, a level of VZA-dependency similar to that seen with the MODIS AF products. By contrast, maximum use of data from the F1 channel provides a median FRP that varies only by a factor of ~3 over the same VZA range. Our simulation modelling demonstrates that this difference is a result of the area of the F1 channel ground pixel footprint remaining far more consistent around the near nadir scan compared to that of S7, which also leads to minimised F1 pixel oversampling even at high VZA observations. The result is that FRP retrievals for a fire derived using the F1 channel observations are far less sensitive to where in the scan the fire is observed. When generated in this way, the Sentinel-3 FRP product characteristics appear similar to those of the VIIRS AF products, since VIIRS also has a method of minimising pixel area growth away from nadir. We conclude that maximum use of the SLSTR F1 channel observations provides significant benefits to the Sentinel-3 AF product, and that unless there are other reasons not to do so any operational processing to generate the NRT and NTC product versions should consider this option as the default. Our findings also show the value of the novel detector design of the SLSTR F1 channel, whose advantageous pixel footprint characteristics mean that similar designs should be considered for future sensors aiming to support active fire applications.

ATmospheric LIDar (ATLID): Pre-Launch Testing and Calibration of the European Space Agency Instrument That Will Measure Aerosols and Thin Clouds in the Atmosphere

ATLID (ATmospheric LIDar) is the atmospheric backscatter Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) instrument on board of the Earth Cloud, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) mission, the sixth Earth Explorer Mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) Living Planet Programme. ATLID’s purpose is to provide vertical profiles of optically thin cloud and aerosol layers, as well as the altitude of cloud boundaries, with a resolution of 100 m for altitudes of 0 to 20 km, and a resolution of 500 m for 20 km to 40 km. In order to achieve this objective ATLID emits short duration laser pulses in the ultraviolet, at a repetition rate of 51 Hz, while pointing in a near nadir direction along track of the satellite trajectory. The atmospheric backscatter signal is then collected by its 620 mm aperture telescope, filtered through the optics of the instrument focal plane assembly, in order to separate and measure the atmospheric Mie and Rayleigh scattering signals. With the completion of the full instrument assembly in 2019, ATLID has been subjected to an ambient performance test campaign, followed by a successful environmental qualification test campaign, including performance calibration and characterization in thermal vacuum conditions. In this paper the design and operational principle of ATLID is recalled and the major performance test results are presented, addressing the main key receiver and emitter characteristics. Finally, the estimated instrument, in-orbit, flight predictions are presented; these indicate compliance of the ALTID instrument performance against its specification and that it will meet its mission science objectives for the EarthCARE mission, to be launched in 2023.

Optical feasibility of an upgrade of the CTA LST camera to SiPM

The Large Size Telescope (LST) is the largest telescope of the Cherenkov Telescope Array project, with a diameter of 23 m and a focal plane instrumentation of 4 square metres. In the current design, it comprises cameras equipped with arrays of 1855 photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). Each PMT has a light concentrator in front to reduce the stray light as well as reduce the dead space between PMTs. These cameras are built to detect the nanoseconds flash of Cherenkov light emitted from atmospheric air-showers generated by a cosmic gamma ray entering the atmosphere. Thanks to a rapid development, silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) are becoming valid alternatives for PMTs in several fields, due to their lower operating voltage, larger photon efficiency, reduced ageing, insensitivity to magnetic fields, and possibly lower costs. These properties make SiPMs suitable for gamma-ray astronomy and future development for imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. Here we discuss a minimal-effort scenario for an upgrade of an LST PMT-based camera to a SiPM-based camera, in which most of the hardware is maintained. Thanks to a ray-tracing software, we show that the minimal valid solution consists only in replacing each PMT by several SiPMs. In particular, the current PMT-tailored lightguides in front of each pixel do not have to be exchanged considering the angular distribution of light at the SiPM surface and its angular response. We briefly discuss the effect on the sensitivity of the instrument equipped with SiPM.

Design and test of cryogenic flex cables for the euclid near infrared spectrophotometer

We describe the design and testing of the Cryogenic Flex Cable (CFC) delivered for the Near-Infrared Spectro-Photometer (NISP) instrument [1] for the ESA Euclid mission [2, 3]. The Euclid spacecraft is scheduled for launch in the summer of 2022. It will observe ∼ 1/3 of the total sky using a telescope with 1.2m SiC primary mirror, passively cooled to ∼ 125K, and containing Visible Imager (VIS) [4] and NISP focal plane instruments, from an orbit at the Earth-Sun L2 lagrange point. At the heart of the NISP instrument is a 4X4 mosaic focal plane of Teledyne H2RG infrared detector arrays held at 100K. The CFC described here are designed to link each detector array to a dedicated packaged cryogenic electronics assembly held at ∼ 137K with minimal heat leak to the 100K stage and to withstand handling and launch vibrations. Prototype CFCs were developed and tested by Teledyne. The final 7-layer CFC flexible printed circuit boards and Airborn nanoconnectors were provided by Teledyne and assembled for flight at the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL). Flight qualification CFC were made and subjected to thermal conductance, thermal emissivity, thermal cycle, survivability to bend, vibration and normal mode testing at JPL. The flight CFC were subject to bake out and thermal cycle at JPL and then tested with the flight detectors and electronics at Goddard Space Flight Centers Detector Characterization Lab. The results of the qualification tests as well as the measured characteristics of the 41 manufactured CFC are summarized.

The Phonon-Mediated TES Cosmic Ray Detector for Focal Plane of ATHENA X-Ray Telescope

The current projects of future X-rays space telescopes foresee high resolving power transition edge sensor (TES) micro-calorimeters arrays as focal plane instrument. In order to full exploit their sensitivity in the space environment, they need an anticoincidence detector to reject the background due to cosmic charged particles. High-energy protons (> 150 MeV) and other charged particle may release in the X-ray calorimeter, the same energy of the X-rays sources under observation. We report the description of the last prototype based on TES calorimeter where a 1-cm2 silicon chip is used as both substrate and absorber. The readout is made of 96 iridium/gold TESs uniformly distributed on its surface and parallel wired. In this paper, we will describe the design, with the preliminary phonon dynamics simulation, the fabrication, of first demonstration model for the ATHENA space telescope project.

ATLID, ESA atmospheric backscatter LIDAR for the ESA EarthCARE mission

The ATmospheric LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), ATLID, is part of the payload of the Earth Cloud, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) mission, the sixth Earth Explorer Mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) Living Planet Programme (http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/SP_1279_1_EarthCARE.pdf). The EarthCARE payload consists of four instruments that will, in a synergetic manner, retrieve vertical profiles of clouds and aerosols, and the characteristics of the radiative and micro-physical properties, to determine flux gradients within the atmosphere and top of atmosphere radiance and flux. ATLID’s task is to provide vertical profiles of optically thin cloud and aerosol layers, as well as the altitude of cloud boundaries. With that purpose ATLID emits < 35 ns duration laser pulses with 40 mJ energy in the UV, at a repetition rate of 51 Hz, while pointing in a near nadir direction along track of the satellite trajectory. The backscatter signal is collected by a 620 mm aperture telescope and is then filtered and redirected through the optics of the instrument focal plane assembly, in such a way that the atmospheric Mie and Rayleigh scattering contributions are separated and independently measured. After the manufacturing, qualification and delivery of all ATLID units, the optical and electrical integration has been conducted in parallel to assemble the Optical Flight Model (OFM) and the Electrical Flight Model (EFM). These two models, precursor to the instrument integration, allowed the early execution of the first performance and functional tests. Following these initial verification activities, and with the latest integration of the flight laser cooling system, the instrument assembly approaches its final flight configuration, paving the way for the ambient performance and environmental test campaigns at full instrument level.

Second-generation Micro-Spec: A compact spectrometer for far-infrared and submillimeter space missions

Micro-Spec is a direct-detection spectrometer which integrates all the components of a diffraction-grating spectrometer onto a ≈10-cm2 chip through the use of superconducting microstrip transmission lines on a single-crystal silicon substrate. The second generation of Micro-Spec is being designed to operate with a spectral resolution of at least 512 in the far-infrared and submillimeter (420–540 GHz, 714–555 μm) wavelength range, a band of interest for NASA's experiment for cryogenic large-aperture intensity mapping called EXCLAIM. EXCLAIM will be a balloon-borne telescope that is being designed to map the emission of redshifted carbon monoxide and singly-ionized carbon lines over a redshift range 0<z<3.5 and it will be the first demonstration of the Micro-Spec technology in a space-like environment. This work reviews the status of the Micro-Spec design for the EXCLAIM telescope, with emphasis on the spectrometer's two-dimensional diffractive region, through which light of different wavelengths is focused on kinetic inductance detectors along the instrument focal plane. An optimization process is used to generate a geometrical configuration of the diffractive region that satisfies specific requirements on size, operating spectral range and performance. An initial optical design optimized for EXCLAIM is presented in terms of geometric layout, spectral purity and efficiency.

Soft proton flux on ATHENA focal plane and its impact on the magnetic diverter design

The experience gained with the current generation of X-ray telescopes like Chandra and XMM-Newton has shown that low energy “soft” protons can pose a severe threat to the possibility to exploit scientific data, reducing the available exposure times by up to 50% and introducing a poorly reproducible background component. These soft protons are present in orbits outside the radiation belts and enter the mirrors, being concentrated towards the focal plane instruments, losing energy along their path and finally depositing their remaining energy in the detectors. Their contribution to the residual background will be even higher for ATHENA with respect to previous missions, given the much higher collecting area of the mirrors, even if the instruments will likely suffer no significant radiation damage from this particles flux. As a consequence this soft proton flux shall be damped with the use of a magnetic diverter to avoid excess background loading on the WFI or X-IFU instruments. We present here a first complete evaluation of this background component for the two focal plane instruments of the ATHENA mission in absence of a magnetic diverter, and derive the requirements for such device to reduce the soft protons induced background below the level required to enable the mission science. We estimate the soft proton flux expected in L2 for the interplanetary component and for the component generated locally by acceleration processes in the magnetotail. We produce a proton response matrix for each of the two instruments of ATHENA focal plane, exploiting two independent Monte Carlo simulations to estimate the optics concentration efficiency, and Geant4 simulations to evaluate the energy loss inside the radiation filters and deposited in the detector. With this modular approach we derive the expected fluxes and spectra for the soft protons component of the background. Finally, we calculate the specifics of a magnetic diverter able to reduce such flux below the required level for both X-IFU and WFI.

Exploring cosmic origins with CORE: Survey requirements and mission design

Future observations of cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarisation have the potential to answer some of the most fundamental questions of modern physics and cosmology, including: what physical process gave birth to the Universe we see today? What are the dark matter and dark energy that seem to constitute 95% of the energy density of the Universe? Do we need extensions to the standard model of particle physics and fundamental interactions? Is the ΛCDM cosmological scenario correct, or are we missing an essential piece of the puzzle? In this paper, we list the requirements for a future CMB polarisation survey addressing these scientific objectives, and discuss the design drivers of the COREmfive space mission proposed to ESA in answer to the “M5” call for a medium-sized mission. The rationale and options, and the methodologies used to assess the mission's performance, are of interest to other future CMB mission design studies. COREmfive has 19 frequency channels, distributed over a broad frequency range, spanning the 60–600 GHz interval, to control astrophysical foreground emission. The angular resolution ranges from 2′ to 18′, and the aggregate CMB sensitivity is about 2 μK⋅arcmin. The observations are made with a single integrated focal-plane instrument, consisting of an array of 2100 cryogenically-cooled, linearly-polarised detectors at the focus of a 1.2-m aperture cross-Dragone telescope. The mission is designed to minimise all sources of systematic effects, which must be controlled so that no more than 10−4 of the intensity leaks into polarisation maps, and no more than about 1% of E-type polarisation leaks into B-type modes. COREmfive observes the sky from a large Lissajous orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 point on an orbit that offers stable observing conditions and avoids contamination from sidelobe pick-up of stray radiation originating from the Sun, Earth, and Moon. The entire sky is observed repeatedly during four years of continuous scanning, with a combination of three rotations of the spacecraft over different timescales. With about 50% of the sky covered every few days, this scan strategy provides the mitigation of systematic effects and the internal redundancy that are needed to convincingly extract the primordial B-mode signal on large angular scales, and check with adequate sensitivity the consistency of the observations in several independent data subsets. COREmfive is designed as a “near-ultimate” CMB polarisation mission which, for optimal complementarity with ground-based observations, will perform the observations that are known to be essential to CMB polarisation science and cannot be obtained by any other means than a dedicated space mission. It will provide well-characterised, highly-redundant multi-frequency observations of polarisation at all the scales where foreground emission and cosmic variance dominate the final uncertainty for obtaining precision CMB science, as well as 2′ angular resolution maps of high-frequency foreground emission in the 300–600 GHz frequency range, essential for complementarity with future ground-based observations with large telescopes that can observe the CMB with the same beamsize.

A revision of soft proton scattering at grazing incidence and its implementation in the geant4 toolkit

The scattering of soft protons inside the Wolter-type optics of X-ray observatories has been proven to concentrate these particles onto the focal plane instruments. The funneling of these protons increases the instrumental background and can also contribute to the degrading of the detectors. The instrumental background and degradation of the detector’s performance experienced by Chandra and XMM-Newton is significantly larger than what was expected on the basis of previous Monte Carlo simulations. For Chandra the main issue is the degradation of the energy resolution due to lattice displacements in the detectors. For XMM the contribution to the instrumental background is more significant. In between, new laboratory measurements as well as a revision of the theory are needed to correctly assess the impact of the environmental radiation for future missions. In this publication we present a Geant4 class that will allow future users to select between either theoretical models or measured data to simulate the scattering of soft protons at grazing angles. To develop this method, we revisit the theory of elastic scattering of protons on polished surfaces and implement these approaches into Geant4. We also implemented recently performed measurements using parts of eROSITA (extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array) mirror shells as scattering targets as another scattering model to be used within the Geant4 toolkit.

An XMM-Newton proton response matrix

Soft protons constitute an important source of background in focusing X-ray telescopes, as Chandra and XMM-Newton experience has shown. The optics in fact transmit them to the focal plane with efficiency similar to the X-ray photon one. This effect is a good opportunity to study the environment of the Earth magnetosphere crossed by the X-ray satellite orbits, provided that we can link the spectra detected by the instruments with the ones impacting on the optics. For X-ray photons this link has the form of the so-called response matrix that includes the optics effective area and the energy redistribution in the detectors. Here we present a first attempt to produce a proton response matrix exploiting ray-tracing and GEANT4 simulations with the final aim to be able to analyse XMM-Newton soft proton data and link them to the external environment. If the procedure is found to be reliable, it can be applied to any future X-ray missions to predict the soft particles spectra impacting on the focal plane instruments.

Sun glitter imagery of ocean surface waves. Part 1: Directional spectrum retrieval and validation

A practical method is suggested to quantitatively retrieve directional spectra of ocean surface waves from high-resolution satellite sun glitter imagery (SSGI). The method builds on direct determination of the imaging transfer function from the large-scale smoothed shape of sun glitter. Observed brightness modulations are then converted into sea surface elevations to perform directional spectral analysis. The method is applied to the Copernicus Sentinel-2 Multi-Spectral Instrument (MSI) measurements. Owing to the specific instrumental configuration of MSI (which has a primary mission dedicated to mapping land surfaces), a physical angular difference between channel detectors on the instrument focal plane array can be used to efficiently determine the surface brightness gradients in two directions, i.e. in sensor zenith and azimuthal directions. In addition, the detector configuration of MSI means that a small temporal lag between channel acquisitions exists. This feature can be exploited to detect surface waves and infer their space-time characteristics using cross-channel correlation. We demonstrate how this can be used to remove directional ambiguity in 2D detected wave spectra, and to obtain information describing local dispersion of surface waves. Directional spectra derived from Sentinel-2 MSI SSGI are compared with in situ buoy measurements. We report an encouraging agreement between SSGI-derived wave spectra and in situ measurements. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Solar dynamics imaging system a back-end instrument for the proposed NLST

The Solar Dynamics Imaging System (SDIS) will be one of the focal plane instruments operated at the National Large Solar Telescope (NLST). The prime objective of the instrument is to obtain high spatial and temporal resolution images of the region of interest on the Sun in the wavelength range from 390 nm to 900 nm. The SDIS provides filtergrams using broad-band filters while preserving the Strehl ratio provided by the telescope. Furthermore, the SDIS is expected to provide observations that allow image reconstruction to extract wave front information and achieve a homogenous image quality over the entire FOV.

LOTUS: a low-cost, ultraviolet spectrograph

We describe the design, construction and commissioning of LOTUS; a simple, low-cost long-slit spectrograph for the Liverpool Telescope. The design is optimized for near-UV and visible wavelengths and uses all transmitting optics. It exploits the instrument focal plane field curvature to partially correct axial chromatic aberration. A stepped slit provides narrow (2.5x95 arcsec) and wide (5x25 arcsec) options that are optimized for spectral resolution and flux calibration respectively. On sky testing shows a wavelength range of 3200-6300 Angstroms with a peak system throughput (including detector quantum efficiency) of 15 per cent and wavelength dependant spectral resolution of R=225-430. By repeated observations of the symbiotic emission line star AG Peg we demonstrate the wavelength stability of the system is less than 2 Angstroms rms and is limited by the positioning of the object in the slit. The spectrograph is now in routine operation monitoring the activity of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko during its current post-perihelion apparition.

Thermal Filters for the ATHENA X-IFU: Ongoing Activities Toward the Conceptual Design

ATHENA is the L2 mission selected by ESA to pursue the science theme “Hot and Energetic Universe.” One of the two focal plane instruments is the X-ray Integral Field Unit, an array of TES microcalorimeters operated at T $$<$$ 100 mK. To allow the X-ray photons focused by the telescope to reach the detector, windows have to be opened on the cryostat thermal shields. X-ray transparent filters need to be mounted on these open windows to attenuate the IR radiation from warm surfaces, to attenuate RF electromagnetic interferences on TES sensors and SQUID electronics, and to protect the detector from contamination. This paper reviews the ongoing activities driving the design of the X-IFU thermal filters.

The PixFEL project: Progress towards a fine pitch X-ray imaging camera for next generation FEL facilities

The INFN PixFEL project is developing the fundamental building blocks for a large area X-ray imaging camera to be deployed at next generation free electron laser (FEL) facilities with unprecedented intensity. Improvement in performance beyond the state of art in imaging instrumentation will be explored adopting advanced technologies like active edge sensors, a 65nm node CMOS process and vertical integration. These are the key ingredients of the PixFEL project to realize a seamless large area focal plane instrument composed by a matrix of multilayer four-side buttable tiles. In order to minimize the dead area and reduce ambiguities in image reconstruction, a fine pitch active edge thick sensor is being optimized to cope with very high intensity photon flux, up to 104 photons per pixel, in the range from 1 to 10keV. A low noise analog front-end channel with this wide dynamic range and a novel dynamic compression feature, together with a low power 10bit analog to digital conversion up to 5MHz, has been realized in a 110μm pitch with a 65nm CMOS process. Vertical interconnection of two CMOS tiers will be also explored in the future to build a four-side buttable readout chip with high density memories. In the long run the objective of the PixFEL project is to build a flexible X-ray imaging camera for operation both in burst mode, like at the European X-FEL, or in continuous mode with the high frame rates anticipated for future FEL facilities.