BlackCAT CubeSat: a soft x-ray sky monitor, transient finder, and burst detector for high-energy and multimessenger astophysics

Chattopadhyay, Tanmoy; Falcon, Abraham D.; Burrows, D. N.; Fox, D. B.; Palmer, D. M.

doi:10.1117/12.2314274

Cited by 15 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The Tungsten backshield (7) is placed between the motherboard and daughterboard and it is connected to the ground through the rods. It provides protection from albedo photons and other particles (Altingun et al submitted [3]) and also acts as an additional ground layer to protect sensitive daughterboard components from electromagnetic interference coming from the motherboard.…”

Section: Mechanical Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Improved X-ray Detector (iXRD) on Sharjah-Sat-1, design principles, tests and ground calibration

Kalemci

Bozkurt

Aslan

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The ixRD is the primary science payload on Sharjah-Sat-1, a 3U CubeSat expected to be launched in Q4, 2022. Its main scientific goal is monitoring bright hard X-ray sources and transients in 20 - 200 keV band. The iXRD consists of a CdZnTe crystal (6.45 cm2 area, 5 mm thickness), a Tungsten collimator with square holes with an opening angle of 4.26o, readout and control electronics and power circuitry, a back-shield and mechanical structures. Some of the design elements of iXRD have been inherited from the XRD on BeEagleSat with significant improvements in terms of collecting area, X-ray background and electronic noise. In this article, the design of the iXRD is discussed in detail taking into account mechanical, electronics, control software and data handling aspects. Its expected performance is determined after ground calibration. Depending on the pixel size, the energy resolution is 4 - 7 keV at 60 keV and the minimum detectable energy is 19 - 23 keV.

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Section: Mechanical Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Improved X-ray Detector (iXRD) on Sharjah-Sat-1, design principles, tests and ground calibration

Kalemci

Bozkurt

Aslan

et al. 2022

Preprint

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“…The primary science goals of the mission are to detect and locate high redshift GRBs and the electro-magnetic counterparts to the gravity waves with sub-arcmin accuracy, while monitoring the X-ray sky to detect and study black hole transients. For more details, on the conceptual design of the instrument and science goals, see [26].…”

Section: Wide Field Imaging With Hcdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

X-ray hybrid CMOS detectors: recent development and characterization progress

Chattopadhyay

Falcone²,

Burrows

et al. 2018

Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2018: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray

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X-ray Hybrid CMOS Detectors (HCDs) have advantages over X-ray CCDs due to their higher readout rate abilities, flexible readout, inherent radiation hardness, and low power, which make them more suitable for the next generation large-area X-ray telescope missions. The Penn State high energy astronomy laboratory has been working on the development and characterization of HCDs in collaboration with Teledyne Imaging Sensors (TIS). A custom-made H2RG detector with 36 µm pixel pitch and 18 µm ROIC shows an improved performance over standard H1RG detectors, primarily due to a reduced level of inter-pixel capacitance crosstalk (IPC). However, the energy resolution and the noise of the detector and readout system are still limited when utilizing a SIDECAR at non-cryogenic temperatures. We characterized an H2RG detector with a Cryo-SIDECAR readout and controller, and we find an improved energy resolution of ∼2.7 % at 5.9 keV and read noise of ∼6.5 e-. Detections of the ∼0.525 keV Oxygen Kα and ∼0.277 keV Carbon Kα lines with this detector display an improved sensitivity level at lower energies. This detector was successfully flown on NASA's first water recovery sounding rocket flight on April 4 th , 2018. We have also been developing several new HCDs with potential applications for future X-ray astronomy missions. We are characterizing the performance of small-pixel HCDs (12.5 µm pitch), which are important for the development of a next-generation high-resolution imager with HCDs. The latest results on these small pixel detectors has shown them to have the best read noise and energy resolution to-date for any X-ray HCD, with a measured 5.5 e-read noise for a detector with in-pixel correlated double sampling. Event recognition in HCDs is another exciting prospect. We characterized a 64 × 64 pixel prototype Speedster-EXD detector that uses comparators in each pixel to read out only those pixels having detectable signal, thereby providing an order of magnitude improvement in the effective readout rate. Currently, we are working on the development of a large area Speedster-EXD with a 550 × 550 pixel array. HCDs can also be utilized as a large FOV instrument to study the prompt and afterglow emissions of GRBs and detect black hole transients. In this context, we are characterizing a Lobster-HCD system for future CubeSat experiments. This paper briefly presents these new developments and experimental results.

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“…Both technologies were studied or are actively under development for the Lynx flagship mission concept, [2][3][4] explorer and probe mission concepts, [5][6][7][8] and smaller missions, such as suborbital rocket payloads 9,10 and cubesats. 11 The WRXR, along with the Colorado Highresolution Echelle Stellar Spectrograph, 12 also enabled the first successful demonstrations of NASA water recovery technology for astrophysics suborbital rocket payloads. Further, the WRXR served as a pathfinder for an upcoming rocket-borne diffuse soft x-ray spectrometer that will improve in both effective area and spectral resolving power.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Recovery X-Ray Rocket grating spectrometer

Miles

Hull

Schultz

et al. 2019

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst.

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The Water Recovery X-Ray Rocket (WRXR) was a suborbital rocket payload that was launched and recovered in April 2018. The WRXR flew two technologies being developed for future large x-ray missions: x-ray reflection gratings and a hybrid CMOS detector (HCD). The large-format replicated gratings on the WRXR were measured in ground calibrations to have absolute single-order diffraction efficiency of ∼60%, ∼50%, and ∼35% at CVI, OVII, and OVIII emission energies, respectively. The HCD was operated with ∼6 e − read noise and ∼88 eV energy resolution at 0.5 keV. The WRXR was also part of a two-payload campaign that successfully demonstrated NASA sounding rocket water recovery technology for science payloads. The primary instrument, a soft x-ray grating spectrometer, targeted diffuse emission from the Vela supernova remnant over a field-of-view >10 deg 2 . The flight data show that the detector was operational during flight and detected x-ray events from an on-board calibration source, but there was no definitive detection of x-ray events from Vela. Flight results are presented along with a discussion of factors that could have contributed to the null detection.

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BlackCAT CubeSat: a soft x-ray sky monitor, transient finder, and burst detector for high-energy and multimessenger astophysics

Cited by 15 publications

References 13 publications

The Improved X-ray Detector (iXRD) on Sharjah-Sat-1, design principles, tests and ground calibration

The Improved X-ray Detector (iXRD) on Sharjah-Sat-1, design principles, tests and ground calibration

X-ray hybrid CMOS detectors: recent development and characterization progress

Water Recovery X-Ray Rocket grating spectrometer

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