SUNSTORM 1/X-ray Flux Monitor for CubeSats (XFM-CS) : Instrument characterization and first results

SUNSTORM 1 CubeSat was launched to Sun-synchronous low Earth orbit on August 17 2021. The primary purpose of the mission is an in-orbit demonstration of X-ray Flux Monitor (XFM) instrument. XFM is an innovative solar X-ray spectrometer for measuring and characterizing solar flares, which are known to be linked to a variety of space weather phenomena. XFM represents a next generation of solar X-ray flux monitors. It is based on silicon drift detector technology, which provides several notable performance improvements over its predecessors, which are based on Si PIN detectors. Transversal electric field and lower output capacitance allow operation at much faster pulse processing shaping times, allowing the system to achieve about 10 times higher throughput without saturation while also making it less sensitive to the increase of leakage current due to high temperature and/or radiation damage. Thus, XFM instruments can cover a very wide dynamic range of solar X-ray emission from the most quiescent conditions to the strongest X-class solar flares, while maintaining good spectral resolution (Peer reviewe

Final size planar edgeless silicon detectors for the TOTEM experiment

The TOTEM experiment will detect leading protons scattered in angles of microradians from the interaction point at the Large Hadron Collider. This will be achieved using detectors with a minimized dead area at the edge. The collaboration has developed an innovative structure at the detector edge reducing the conventional dead width to less than 100 microns, still using standard planar fabrication technology. In this new development, the current of the surface is decoupled from the sensitive volume current within a few tens of micrometers. The basic working principle is explained in this paper. Final size detectors have been produced using this approach. The current-voltage and current-temperature characteristics of the detectors were studied and the detectors were successfully tested in a coasting beam experiment

Performance of almost edgeless silicon detectors in CTS and 3D-planar technologies

The physics programme of the TOTEM experiment requires the detection of very forward protons scattered by only a few microradians out of the LHC beams. For this purpose, stacks of planar Silicon detectors have been mounted in moveable near-beam telescopes (Roman Pots) located along the beamline on both sides of the interaction point. In order to maximise the proton acceptance close to the beams, the dead space at the detector edge had to be minimised. During the detector prototyping phase, different sensor technologies and designs have been explored. A reduction of the dead space to less than 50 \u3bcm has been accomplished with two novel silicon detector technologies: one with the Current Terminating Structure (CTS) design and one based on the 3D edge manufacturing. This paper describes performance studies on prototypes of these detectors, carried out in 2004 in a fixed-target muon beam at CERN's SPS accelerator. In particular, the efficiency and accuracy in the vicinity of the beam-facing edges are discussed