Time resolution capability of the XMM EPIC pn-CCD in different readout modes

Markus Kuster; S. Benlloch; Eckhard Kendziorra; Ulrich G. Briel

doi:10.1117/12.366548

22 October 1999 Time resolution capability of the XMM EPIC pn-CCD in different readout modes

Markus Kuster, S. Benlloch, Eckhard Kendziorra, Ulrich G. Briel

Proceedings Volume 3765, EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Instrumentation for Astronomy X; (1999) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.366548
Event: SPIE's International Symposium on Optical Science, Engineering, and Instrumentation, 1999, Denver, CO, United States

Abstract

The XMM, the second corner stone mission of the European Space Agency's Horizon 2000, will be launched in December 1999. One of the instruments on board of XMM will be the EPIC pn-CCD. The detector consists of four independent quadrants integrated monolithically on a single silicon wafer. Each quadrant is divided into 3 CCDs with 200 X 64 pixels and 280 micrometers depletion depth. The pn-CCD will be able to perform high resolution timing analysis as well as high throughput imaging and spectroscopy in six different readout modes. In the standard imagin mode the CCDs are read out sequentially every 73.3 ms. In addition, different readout modes allow high resolution timing analysis by reducing the integration time down to 7 microsecond(s) and reading out only one CCD. In this paper we show results of the calibration of the flight spare unit of the EPIC pn camera with respect to time resolution of all observation modes. In the first part we explain the detailed timing of each mode and show how one can calculate the best possible arrival time for photons in each observation mode. In the second part of the paper, we analyzed the influence of the readout noise on the time resolution of the pn-CCD camera, by combining dead time functions with simulated light curves.

Citation Download Citation

Markus Kuster, S. Benlloch, Eckhard Kendziorra, and Ulrich G. Briel "Time resolution capability of the XMM EPIC pn-CCD in different readout modes", Proc. SPIE 3765, EUV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Instrumentation for Astronomy X, (22 October 1999); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.366548

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