Background simulations of the wide field imager of the ATHENA X-ray observatory

Author

Hauf, Steffen ; Kuster, Markus ; Pia, Maria Grazia ; Hoffmann, Dieter H H ; Lang, Philipp ; Neff, Stephan ; Stefanescu, Alexander ; Strüder, Lothar

Author_Institution

Tech. Univ. Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

fYear

2011

fDate

23-29 Oct. 2011

Firstpage

1239

Lastpage

1243

Abstract

The ATHENA X-ray Observatory-IXO is a planned multinational orbiting X-ray observatory with a focal length of 11.5 m. ATHENA aims to perform pointed observations in an energy range from 0.1 keV to 15 keV with high sensitivity. For high spatial and timing resolution imaging and spectroscopic observations the 640 × 640 pixels² large DePFET-technology based Wide field Imager (WFI) focal plane detector, providing a field of view of 18 arcsec will be the main detector. Based on the actual mechanics, thermal and shielding design we present estimates for the WFI cosmic ray induced background obtained by the use of Monte-Carlo simulations and possible background reduction measures.

Keywords

Monte Carlo methods; X-ray detection; X-ray spectrometers; cosmic background radiation; focal planes; nuclear electronics; ATHENA X-Ray observatory; DePFET-technology; Monte-Carlo simulation; WFI cosmic ray induced background; background reduction measure; energy range; focal length; multinational orbiting X-ray observatory; sensitivity; shielding design; spatial resolution; spectroscopic observation; thermal design; timing resolution; wide field imager focal plane pixel detector; Copper; Fluorescence; Nickel; Sensitivity; Silicon carbide; Tin;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference (NSS/MIC), 2011 IEEE

Conference_Location

Valencia

ISSN

1082-3654

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-0118-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/NSSMIC.2011.6154609

Filename

6154609