Jet-X at MSSL

SIXA
SIXA (Segmented solid state spectrometer array) is a multielement X-ray photon counting spectrometer being built in Finland (go here for the SIXA homepage). It consists of 19 discrete hexagonally arranged circular elements with a centreline distance of 12 mm (Figure 1). The detector material is lithium-drifted silicon (Si(Li)). A radiative cooler is used to bring the detector to the proper operating temperature (120-130 K), and aluminium coated polyimide windows are used to filter out IR/visible/UV light. Table 1 gives a summary of the properties of SIXA. The total response of the SIXA/SODART system is demonstrated in Figure 2.
Diameter of active area6 cm
Field of view25 arc min
Number of pixels19
Total/active pixel diameter12/9.2 mm (5.16/3.95 arc min)
Number of energy channels1024
Width of each channel20 eV
Effective energy range0.5-20 keV
Depletion depth3 mm
Energy resolution (FWHM)200 eV at 6 keV
Time resolution30.5 microsec (TIM mode: 12.21 microsec)
Operating temperature120-130 K
 Table 1. SIXA parameters

Figure 1. SIXA over the coma cluster. Courtesy of SIXA homepage

Figure 2. SIXA resolving power and response. Courtesy of SIXA homepage

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This page is maintained by Dr. Jonathan Mittaz
Last modified 9 June 1997.
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