Ground calibration of the Silicon Drift Detectors for NICER
Author(s)
Gendreau, Keith C.
Arzoumanian, Zaven
Markwardt, Craig B.
Baumgartner, Wayne H.
Prigozhin, Gregory
Remillard, Ronald A
Malonis, Andrew C.
La Marr, Beverly J.
Date Issued
July 2016
Journal
Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2016: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray
Publisher
SPIE
Citation
LaMarr, B. et al. “Ground Calibration of the Silicon Drift Detectors for NICER.” Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2016: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, June - July 2016, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, SPIE, July 2016 © 2016 SPIE
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER) is set to be deployed on the International Space Station (ISS) in early 2017. It will use an array of 56 Silicon Drift Detectors (SDDs) to detect soft X-rays (0.2 - 12 keV) with 100 nanosecond timing resolution. Here we describe the effort to calibrate the detectors in the lab primarily using a Modulated X-ray Source (MXS). The MXS that was customized for NICER provides more than a dozen emission lines spread over the instrument bandwidth, providing calibration measurements for detector gain and spectral resolution. In addition, the fluorescence source in the MXS was pulsed at high frequency to enable measurement of the delay due to charge collection in the silicon and signal processing in the detector electronics. A second chamber, designed to illuminate detectors with either 55 Fe, an optical LED, or neither, provided additional calibration of detector response, optical blocking, and effectiveness of background rejection techniques. The overall ground calibration achieved total operating time that was generally in the range of 500-1500 hours for each of the 56 detectors. Keywords: Silicon Drift Detectors; X-rays; timing spectroscopy; calibration
MIT Department
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
Terms of Use
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Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2232784
