The effect of the displacement damage on the Charge Collection Efficiency in Silicon Drift Detectors for the LOFT satellite

The technology of Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs) has been selected for the two instruments aboard the Large Observatory For X-ray Timing (LOFT) space mission. LOFT underwent a three year long assessment phase as candidate for the M3 launch opportunity within the "Cosmic Vision 2015 -- 2025" long-term science plan of the European Space Agency. During the LOFT assessment phase, we studied the displacement damage produced in the SDDs by the protons trapped in the Earth's magnetosphere. In a previous paper we discussed the effects of the Non Ionising Energy Losses from protons on the SDD leakage current. In this paper we report the measurement of the variation of Charge Collection Efficiency produced by displacement damage caused by protons and the comparison with the expected damage in orbit.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication by Journal of Instrumentatio

Simulations of the X-ray imaging capabilities of the Silicon Drift Detectors (SDD) for the LOFT Wide Field Monitor

The Large Observatory For X-ray Timing (LOFT), selected by ESA as one of the four Cosmic Vision M3 candidate missions to undergo an assessment phase, will revolutionize the study of compact objects in our galaxy and of the brightest supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei. The Large Area Detector (LAD), carrying an unprecedented effective area of 10 m^2, is complemented by a coded-mask Wide Field Monitor, in charge of monitoring a large fraction of the sky potentially accessible to the LAD, to provide the history and context for the sources observed by LAD and to trigger its observations on their most interesting and extreme states. In this paper we present detailed simulations of the imaging capabilities of the Silicon Drift Detectors developed for the LOFT Wide Field Monitor detection plane. The simulations explore a large parameter space for both the detector design and the environmental conditions, allowing us to optimize the detector characteristics and demonstrating the X-ray imaging performance of the large-area SDDs in the 2-50 keV energy band.Comment: Proceedings of SPIE, Vol. 8443, Paper No. 8443-210, 201

Radiation tests of the Silicon Drift Detectors for LOFT

During the three years long assessment phase of the LOFT mission, candidate to the M3 launch opportunity of the ESA Cosmic Vision programme, we estimated and measured the radiation damage of the silicon drift detectors (SDDs) of the satellite instrumentation. In particular, we irradiated the detectors with protons (of 0.8 and 11 MeV energy) to study the increment of leakage current and the variation of the charge collection efficiency produced by the displacement damage, and we "bombarded" the detectors with hypervelocity dust grains to measure the effect of the debris impacts. In this paper we describe the measurements and discuss the results in the context of the LOFT mission.Comment: Proc. SPIE 9144, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2014: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 91446

The X-Gamma Imaging Spectrometer (XGIS) onboard THESEUS

A compact and modular X and gamma-ray imaging spectrometer (XGIS) has been designed as one of the instruments foreseen on-board the THESEUS mission proposed in response to the ESA M5 call. The experiment envisages the use of CsI scintillator bars read out at both ends by single-cell 25 mm 2 Silicon Drift Detectors. Events absorbed in the Silicon layer (lower energy X rays) and events absorbed in the scintillator crystal (higher energy X rays and Gamma-rays) are discriminated using the on-board electronics. A coded mask provides imaging capabilities at low energies, thus allowing a compact and sensitive instrument in a wide energy band (~2 keV up to ~20 MeV). The instrument design, expected performance and the characterization performed on a series of laboratory prototypes are discussed.Comment: To be published in the Proceedings of the THESEUS Workshop 2017 (http://www.isdc.unige.ch/theseus/workshop2017.html), Journal of the Italian Astronomical Society (Mem.SAIt), Editors L. Amati, E. Bozzo, M. Della Valle, D. Gotz, P. O'Brien. Details on the THESEUS mission concept can be found in the white paper Amati et al. 2017 (arXiv:171004638) and Stratta et al. 2017 (arXiv:1712.08153

EXPERIENCE IN MOBILE LASER SCANNING BY MEANS OF LYNX SYSTEM IN L’AQUILA CITY

The terrestrial laser scanner is an efficient topographical instrumentation used to acquire a redundant number of points distributed over a physical surface. The goal of laser scanning is the definition of very accurate models of the studied areas. In this way, deformations or changes can be monitored by means of repeated surveys in different epochs [Pesci et al., 2005; 2007]. The laser signal is characterized by highly collimated, monochromatic, and coherent radiation that is well suitable for very short impulse generation in the nanosecond scale. The operating methodology of a time-of-flight laser scanner is similar to a laser range-finder, measuring the time it takes a laser pulse to travel from a transmitter to the surface surveyed, and back to a detector device. The range d is computed using the relation d = ct / 2, where t is the time of flight and c is the speed of light. The advantage of this instruments is the laser beam deflection over a very accurate angular grid, that can be obtained by oscillating and rotating mirrors, thus providing a wide coverage area between adjacent points. Each point is collected into a local reference system consisting of the origin at the instrument sensor, well-known angular parameters, and very accurate measurements of range. Together with point coordinates (x, y, z) , radiometric values related to the surveyed object’s reflectivity can be calculated from returned signal energy. The maximum measurable range depends on the illuminated material roughness and color, and the laser wavelength [Fidera et al. 2004, Pesci and Teza, 2008]. Divergence values for new generation long-range scanners are extremely reduced, illuminating very small surface elements for each shot. The spot dimension increases linearly with the distance, and is always greater than the lower limit of the instantaneous field of view (IFOV) due to physical diffraction. Effective laser scanner characteristics are defined by a set of parameters, including: range resolution (depending on telemeter efficiency), single point measurement accuracy (depending on the internal electronic device, signal-to-noise ratio and critical time needed for pulse recognition), beam divergence (which defines the IFOV, depending on laser wavelength), and minimum angular step (depending on the internal mirrors calibrated system) [Wehr and Lohr 1999]. Overlap is the laser scanning strategy that can reduce errors, because redundant points are acquired belonging to the same illuminated area. A common overlap is obtained by fixing the ratio between spot dimension (the area illuminated by a single pulse with a given divergence) and angular step so that a given point is measured 10 times. For instance, if the divergence is 3 mrad and angular variation about 0.3 mrad, at 100 m distance, an element included in a 3 cm area is observed 10 times. The final result of a laser scanner application is a very dense point cloud, with radiometric reflectivity data for each point

GAME: Grb and All-sky Monitor Experiment

We describe the GRB and All-sky Monitor Experiment (GAME) mission submitted by a large international collaboration (Italy, Germany, Czech Repubblic, Slovenia, Brazil) in response to the 2012 ESA call for a small mission opportunity for a launch in 2017 and presently under further investigation for subsequent opportunities. The general scientific objective is to perform measurements of key importance for GRB science and to provide the wide astrophysical community of an advanced X-ray all-sky monitoring system. The proposed payload was based on silicon drift detectors (~1-50 keV), CdZnTe (CZT) detectors (~15-200 keV) and crystal scintillators in phoswich (NaI/CsI) configuration (~20 keV-20 MeV), three well established technologies, for a total weight of ~250 kg and a required power of ~240 W. Such instrumentation allows a unique, unprecedented and very powerful combination of large field of view (3-4 sr), a broad energy energy band extending from ~1 keV up to ~20 MeV, an energy resolution as good as ~300 eV in the 1-30 keV energy range, a source location accuracy of ~1 arcmin. The mission profile included a launch (e.g., by Vega) into a low Earth orbit, a baseline sky scanning mode plus pointed observations of regions of particular interest, data transmission to ground via X-band (4.8 Gb/orbit, Alcantara and Malindi ground stations), and prompt transmission of GRB / transient triggers.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, published in International Journal of Modern Physics

Low-noise monolithic bipolar front-end for silicon drift detectors

Abstract A very low noise, 32-channel preamplifier/shaper chip has been designed for the analogue readout of silicon detectors. The circuit has been optimized in view of the operation of silicon drift detectors, which have very low capacitance and produce gaussian signals of σ of few tens of ns. The chip (OLA) has been designed and manufactured using the SHPi full-custom bipolar process by Tektronix. Each channel is composed by a preamplifier, a shaper and a symmetrical line driver, which allows to drive either a positive and a negative single ended output separately on 50 Ω impedance or a differential twisted pair. The intrinsic peaking time of the circuit is ∼60 ns , and the noise is below 250 electrons at zero input load capacitance. The power consumption is 2 mW/channel, mostly due to the output driver

Characterization of the VEGA ASIC coupled to large area position-sensitive Silicon Drift Detectors

Low-noise, position-sensitive Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs) are particularly useful for experiments in which a good energy resolution combined with a large sensitive area is required, as in the case of X-ray astronomy space missions and medical applications. This paper presents the experimental characterization of VEGA, a custom Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) used as the front-end electronics for XDXL-2, a large-area (30.5 cm^2) SDD prototype. The ASICs were integrated on a specifically developed PCB hosting also the detector. Results on the ASIC noise performances, both stand-alone and bonded to the large area SDD, are presented and discussed.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in Journal of Instrumentation (JINST

LOFT - a Large Observatory For x-ray Timing

The high time resolution observations of the X-ray sky hold the key to a number of diagnostics of fundamental physics, some of which are unaccessible to other types of investigations, such as those based on imaging and spectroscopy. Revealing strong gravitational field effects, measuring the mass and spin of black holes and the equation of state of ultradense matter are among the goals of such observations. At present prospects for future, non-focused X-ray timing experiments following the exciting age of RXTE/PCA are uncertain. Technological limitations are unavoidably faced in the conception and development of experiments with effective area of several square meters, as needed in order to meet the scientific requirements. We are developing large-area monolithic Silicon Drift Detectors offering high time and energy resolution at room temperature, which require modest resources and operation complexity (e.g., read-out) per unit area. Based on the properties of the detector and read-out electronics that we measured in the lab, we developed a realistic concept for a very large effective area mission devoted to X-ray timing in the 2-30 keV energy range. We show that effective areas in the range of 10-15 square meters are within reach, by using a conventional spacecraft platform and launcher of the small-medium class.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 7732, Paper No. 7732-66, 201