Cryogenic imaging x-ray spectrometer

摘要

A micro-calorimeter array consisting of superconducting transition-edge sensors is under development for the X-ray imaging spectrometer on board of ESA's XEUS (X-ray Evolving Universe Spectroscopy) mission. An array of 32 /spl times/ 32 pixels with a pixel size of 250 micron square is envisaged. So far, 5 /spl times/ 5 pixels arrays were successfully fabricated along two fabrication routes: a bulk micromachining and a surface micromachining route. Both routes result in working arrays with energy resolutions down to 5 eV FWHM for the best pixels.