A 36 cm2 large monolythic pn-charge coupled device x-ray detector for the European XMM satellite mission

Monolythic arrays of 12 pn-charge coupled devices 3×1 cm2 each, have been developed and produced for the focal plane instrumentation of the high throughput European Photon Imaging Camera on XMM and the German ABRIXAS x-ray satellite mission. The design parameters have been optimized to match the properties of the x-ray imaging optics as well as the x-ray intensity, energy bandwidth, and characteristic time constants of objects to be observed. The pixel size is 150×150 μm2; read-out is performed in parallel with 64 channels in each subunit, resulting in a total of 768 channels; low noise, spectroscopic performance is realized by on-chip integrated JFET electronics; high ohmic, ultrapure bulk material allows full depletion and enhances the efficiency for higher energy x-ray detection. The fabrication process, the layout topology, and the operating conditions guarantee ten years operation in space without performance degradation.