The New Hard X-ray Mission (NHXM) Italian project will be operated by 2016. It is based on 4 hard X-ray optics
modules, each formed by 60 evenly spaced multilayer coated Wolter I mirror shells. For the achievement of a long focal
length (10 m) an extensible bench is used. The pseudo-cylindrical Wolter I monolithic substrates where the multilayer
coating is applied will be produced using the Ni electroforming replica approach. For three of the four mirror modules
the focal plane will host a hybrid a detector system, consisting in the combination of a Si-based low energy detector
(efficient from 0.5 up to ~ 15 keV) , on top of a high energy CdTe pixellated detector (efficient from 10 keV up to ~ 80
keV); the two cameras will be surrounded by both a passive shield and an anticoincidence shield. The total on axis
effective area of the three telescopes at 1 keV and at 30 kev is of 1500 cm2 and 350 cm2 respectively. The angular
resolution requirement is better than 20 arcsec HEW at 30 keV, while the Field of View at 50% vignetting is 12 arcmin
(diameter). The payload is finally completed with the fourth telescope module, that will have as a focal plane detector a
high sensitivity imaging photoelectric polarimetric system, operating from 2 up to 35 keV. In this paper, after an
overview of the mission configuration and its scientific goals, we report on the design and development of the multilayer
optics of the mission, based on thin replicated Ni mirror shells.

Design and development of the optics system for the NHXM Hard X-ray and Polarimetric Mission

The German X-ray observatory eROSITA (extended ROentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array) is the prime instrument of the new Spectrum-RG mission. Launch of the Russian satellite is planned for the year 2011. The scientific goal of eROSITA is primarily the detection and analysis of 100 thousand clusters of galaxies in order to study the large scale structures in the Universe and to test cosmological models. The therefore required large effective area is obtained by an array of seven identical and parallel aligned Wolter-I telescopes. In the focus of each mirror module, there is a large frame store pnCCD detector, providing a field of view of 1° in diameter. The same X-ray detector type will also be applied for ART-XC, another grazing-incidence telescope system aboard Spectrum-RG, which permits the detection of heavily obscured X-ray sources. These scientific instruments allow the exploration of the X-ray Universe in the energy band from 0.3 keV to 11 keV. During a mission time of at least five years, an all-sky survey, wide as well as deep surveys and pointed observations will be performed. Approval and funding for eROSITA were granted by the German space agency DLR in April 2007. The conceptual design of the X-ray focal plane cameras is presented here comprising electrical, thermal, and mechanical aspects. Key part of the camera is the pnCCD detector chip, which is developed and produced in our semiconductor laboratory, the MPI Halbleiterlabor. The CCD was designed according to the specifications given by the scientific goals of eROSITA. The eROSITA CCD differs apparently from all previously produced frame store pnCCDs by its larger size and format. The CCD image area of the seven eROSITA cameras is in total 58 cm2 large and their number of pixels is about seven times higher than that of the XMM-Newton pnCCD camera. First pnCCD devices were recently produced and tested. Their performance measurements and results are of most importance for eROSITA because the tested CCDs are the control sample of the flight detector production.

EROSITA camera design and first performance measurements with CCDs - art. no. 70110J

Like the International X-ray Observatory (IXO) mission, the Simbol-X mission is a projected X-ray space telescope
with spectral and imaging capabilities covering the energy range from 500 eV up to 80 keV. To detect photons
within this wide range of energies, a silicon based "Depleted P-channel Field Effect Transistor" (DePFET)-
matrix is used as the Low Energy Detector (LED) on top of an array of CdTe-Caliste modules, which act as the
High Energy Detector (HED).
A Science Verification Model (SVM) consisting of one LED quadrant in front of one Caliste module will be set
up at our institute (IAAT) and operated under laboratory conditions that approximate the expected environment
in space. As a first step we use the SVM to test and optimize the performance of the LED operation and data
acquisition chain, consisting of an ADC, an event-preprocessor, a sequencer, and an interface controller. All
these components have been developed at our institute with the objective to handle the high readout rate of
approximately 8000 frames per second. The second step is to study the behaviour and the interactions of LED
and HED operating as a combined detector system.
We report on the development status of the SVM and its associated electronics and present first results of
the currently achieved spectral performance.

Development of the Simbol-X science verification model and its contribution for the IXO Mission

The High Energy Detector (HED) is one of the three detection units on board the Simbol‐X detector spacecraft. It is placed below the Low Energy Detector so as to collect focused photons in the energy range from 8 to 80 keV. It consists of a mosaic of 64 independent cameras, divided in 8 sectors. Each elementary detection unit, called Caliste, is the hybridization of a 256‐pixel Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) detector with full custom front‐end electronics into a unique component. The status of the HED design will be reported. The promising results obtained from the first micro‐camera prototypes called Caliste 64 and Caliste 256 will be presented to illustrate the expected performance of the instrument.

The High Energy Detector of Simbol‐X

The Simbol-X 1 Low Energy Detector (LED), a 128 x 128 pixel DEPFET array, will be read out very fast (8000frames/second). This requires a very fast onboard data preprocessing of the raw data. We present an FPGA  based Event Preprocessor (EPP) which can fulll this requirements. The design is developed in the hardwaredescription language VHDL  and can be later ported on an ASIC § technology. The EPP performs a pixel relatedoset correction and can apply dier ent energy thresholds to each pixel of the frame. It also provides a linerelated common-mode correction to reduce noise that is unavoidably caused by the analog readout chip of theDEPFET. An integrated pattern detect or can block all invalid pixel patterns. The EPP has an internal pipelinestructure and can perform all operation in realtime ( < 2 µ s per line of 64 pixel) with a base clock frequency of100 MHz. It is utilizing a fast median-value detection algorithm for common-mode correction and a new patternscanning algorithm to select only valid events. Both new algorithms were developed during the last year at ourinstitute.Keywords: Simbol-X, LED, LEDA, LEDE, EPP, Event Preprocessor, IAAT

A fast event preprocessor for the Simbol-X Low-Energy Detector

The elucidation of key questions in astrophysics, in particular those related to black hole physics and census, and to particle acceleration mechanisms, necessitates to develop new observational capabilities in the hard X-ray domain with performances several orders of magnitude better than presently available. Relying on two spacecrafts in a formation flying configuration, Simbol-X will provide the world-wide astrophysics community with a single optics long focal length telescope. This observatory will have unrivaled performances in the hard X-ray domain, up to ~80 keV, as well as very good characteristics in the soft X-ray domain, down to ~0.5 keV. The Simbol-X mission has successfully passed a phase A study, jointly conducted by CNES and ASI, with the participation of German laboratories. It is now entering phase B studies with the participation of new international partners, for a launch in 2015. We give in this paper a general overview of the mission, as consolidated at the start of phase B.

The Simbol-X mission

Taking advantage of emerging technology in mirror manufacturing and spacecraft formation flying, Simbol-X will push grazing incidence imaging up to ~80 keV, providing an improvement of roughly three orders of magnitude in sensitivity and angular resolution compared to all instruments that have operated so far above 10 keV. This will open a new window in X-ray astronomy, allowing breakthrough studies on black hole physics and census and particle acceleration mechanisms. We discuss here synergies between Simbol-X and the main multiwavelength facilities that will operate in the next decade, and present a quantitative comparison between Simbol-X and its main competitors, NuStar and Astro-H.

pdf/simbol-x-core-science-in-a-context-19gj1zgle2.pdf

Simbol-X core science in a context

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The Simbol-X mission

Simbol-X core science in a context