Mechanical and thermal design of the BlackCAT CubeSat

Baker, Logan D.; Wages, Mitchell .; Falcone, A.; LaRocca, Daniel M.; McCormick, Gooderham; Armstrong, Cole R.; Anderson, Tyler; Burrows, D. N.; Catlin, Zachary E.; Colosimo, Joseph M.; Culbertson, Seth K.; Fox, D. B.; Grzybowski, Hannah M.; Jennerjahn, Evan C.; Palmer, D. M.; Stone, Lukas R.; Washington, Daniel

doi:10.1117/12.2629543

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…The BlackCAT CubeSat will utilize passive cooling, with expected focal plane operating temperatures between 213 and 233 K once in orbit 11 . It is particularly important to characterize the level and impact of dark current in the Speedster-EXD550 detectors when operating within this temperature range.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fast readout will reduce the impact of dark current, thus allowing for operation at higher temperatures and relaxing the thermal requirements placed upon the limited CubeSat platform. 11 2 Methods…”

Section: Event-driven Readoutmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The BlackCAT CubeSat will utilize passive cooling, with expected focal plane operating temperatures between 213 and 233 K once in orbit. 11 It is particularly important to characterize the level and impact of dark current in the Speedster-EXD550 detectors when operating within this temperature range. The shot-noise contribution from dark current is the square root of the expected number of dark-current electrons accumulated in a pixel in a single frame.…”

Section: Expected Impact Of Dark Current: a Sample Casementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This instrument will use a coded-aperture mask in conjunction with the Speedster detectors to monitor the x-ray sky for gamma-ray bursts and other high-energy transient phenomena. Fast readout will reduce the impact of dark current, thus allowing for operation at higher temperatures and relaxing the thermal requirements placed upon the limited CubeSat platform 11 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Initial characterization of the first Speedster-EXD550 event-driven X-ray hybrid CMOS detectors

Colosimo,

Grzybowski,

Jennerjahn

et al. 2023

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst.

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.Future x-ray observatories will require imaging detectors with fast readout speeds that simultaneously achieve or exceed the other high-performance parameters of x-ray charge-coupled devices used in many missions over the past three decades. Fast readout will reduce the impact of pile-up in missions with large collecting areas while improving the performance in other respects, such as timing resolution. Event-driven readout, in which only pixels with charge from x-ray events are read out, can be used to achieve these faster operating speeds. Speedster-EXD550 detectors are hybrid complementary metal-oxide semiconductor detectors capable of event-driven readout that were developed by Teledyne Imaging Sensors and Penn State University. We present the initial results from measurements of the first of these detectors, demonstrating their capabilities and performance in both full-frame and event-driven readout modes. These include dark current, read noise, gain variation, and energy resolution measurements from the first two engineering-grade devices.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Event-driven Readoutmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Expected Impact Of Dark Current: a Sample Casementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Initial characterization of the first Speedster-EXD550 event-driven X-ray hybrid CMOS detectors

Colosimo,

Grzybowski,

Jennerjahn

et al. 2023

J. Astron. Telesc. Instrum. Syst.

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“…The Black Hole Coded Aperture Telescope (BlackCAT) CubeSat is a wide FOV (0.85 steradians) x-ray transient detector and x-ray sky monitor. 8 BlackCAT will operate in the 0.5 -20 keV bandpass and is optimized for detecting bright, high-redshift (z >5) gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) from the early universe to study early star formation. 9 Secondary goals of BlackCAT include detecting short GRBs, x-ray counterparts to gravitational wave events, and other x-ray variability sources, e.g., active galactic nuclei, x-ray binaries, and tidal disruption events.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Status of testing and characterization of the Speedster-EXD550 x-ray hybrid CMOS detector

Stone,

Falcone,

Colosimo

et al. 2023

UV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Space Instrumentation for Astronomy XXIII

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The novel Speedster-EXD550 is a 550×550-pixel X-ray hybrid CMOS detector (HCD) with event-driven readout capabilities and 40-micron pixel pitch. In event-driven readout mode, only the pixels that contain sufficient liberated charge from the absorption of an x-ray will be read out. Event-driven readout allows for even faster readout speed than other HCDs, reaching readout speeds up to 10,000 frames/sec. The high frame rate of the Speedster-EXD550 is desirable for future missions as the effects of dark current and x-ray pile-up will be reduced. The readout circuitry within the ROIC for the Speedster-EXD550 contains a high-gain capacitive transimpedance amplifier, in-pixel correlated double sampling, and an in-pixel comparator enabling event-driven readout. The Speedster-EXD550 also utilizes column-parallel on-chip digitization. The ability of the Speedster-EXD550 will be demonstrated on BlackCAT, a funded NASA CubeSat mission. Testing and characterization of the Speedster-EXD550 has been done by the Penn State High Energy Astrophysics Detector and Instrumentation lab in both full-frame and event-driven readout modes. A radioactive 55 Fe source was used for the measurements presented. Here, we discuss the methods and recent results for the characterization of the Speedster-EXD550 dark current, read noise, gain, and gain variation.

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BlackCAT: an upcoming soft x-ray coded aperture telescope on a 6U CubeSat

Falcone,

Colosimo,

Wages

et al. 2024

Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray

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The BlackCAT CubeSat is an X-ray coded-aperture-telescope observatory that is expected to launch in 2025. It is designed for observations of bright X-ray sources in the 0.5-20 keV band. The instrument will have a wide field of view (0.85 steradian) and be capable of catching gamma ray bursts (GRBs) from the distant universe, galactic transients, and flares from blazars, while monitoring the X-ray sky. In addition to the primary high-redshift GRB science, BlackCAT can monitor known source variability and search for rare and exciting events including gravitational-wave X-ray counterparts, magnetar flares, supernova shock breakouts, and tidal disruption events. The mission will thus function as a multiwavelength and multi-messenger complement to present and future facilities including LIGO, VIRGO, KAGRA, IceCube, KM3NET, LSST, LOFAR, SKA, and CTA. Rapid notifications of burst positions will be transmitted to the ground via satellite network and then relayed to the GCN. The name BlackCAT is derived from its scientific emphasis on black-holerelated transient events being observed with a coded aperture telescope (CAT). BlackCAT will serve as the scientific payload aboard a commercial 6U CubeSat spacecraft provided by NanoAvionics US. Novel event-driven X-ray hybrid CMOS detectors will form the focal plane array. In addition to carrying out science programs related to distant GRBs, transients, and X-ray sky monitoring, BlackCAT will also serve as a pathfinder for future economical missions combining multiple BlackCAT modules on either a single small satellite or on multiple CubeSats. BlackCAT will also serve as a platform for new X-ray hybrid CMOS detector development. An overview of BlackCAT in its current development state and its current status will be presented.

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Mechanical and thermal design of the BlackCAT CubeSat

Cited by 3 publications

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Initial characterization of the first Speedster-EXD550 event-driven X-ray hybrid CMOS detectors

Initial characterization of the first Speedster-EXD550 event-driven X-ray hybrid CMOS detectors

Status of testing and characterization of the Speedster-EXD550 x-ray hybrid CMOS detector

BlackCAT: an upcoming soft x-ray coded aperture telescope on a 6U CubeSat

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