The re-formulation phase of the next generation x-ray observatory ATHENA (Advanced Telescope for High ENergy Astrophysics) – now NewATHENA - is being utilized for further improvements of the optics technology. The Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) remains the technology of choice, since it uniquely combines a low mass, large effective area, and good angular resolution, addressing the challenge of the NewATHENA X-ray optics. The performance and preparation for the cost-effective implementation of the flight optics is being further evolved in a joint effort by industry, research institutions and ESA. The SPO technology greatly benefits from investments in the semiconductor industry and maximizes technology spin-in. Dedicated facilities have been and are being created to produce the required mirror plates, assemble them into stacks and mirror modules, integrate them into the complete telescope and measure the performance and compatibility with the NewATHENA technical and programmatic requirements. An overview of the activities preparing the implementation of the NewATHENA optics is provided.
Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) have been invented and developed to enable x-ray optics for space applications that require a combination of high angular resolution while being light-weight to allow achieving a large mirror surface area. In 2005, the SPO technology development was initiated by the European Space Agency (ESA) for a flagship x-ray telescope mission and is currently being planned as a baseline for the NewATHENA mission scheduled for launch in the 2030s. Its more than 2m diameter mirror will be segmented and comprises of 492 individual Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) grazing-angle imagers, called mirror modules. Arranged in concentric annuli and following a Wolter-Schwartzschild design, the mirror modules are made of several tens of primary-secondary mirror pairs, each mirror made of silicon, coated to increase the collective area of the system, and shaped to bring the incoming photons to a common focus in 12 m distance. The mission aims to deliver an angular resolution of better than nine arc-seconds (Half-energy width) and effective area of about 1.1 m2 at an energy of 1 keV. We present in this paper the status of the optics production and illustrate not only recent x-ray results but also the progress made on the environmental testing, manufacturing and assembly aspects of SPO based optics.
Athena is the European Space Agency’s next flagship telescope, scheduled for launch in the 2030s. Its 2.5 m diameter mirror will be segmented and comprise more than 600 individual Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) mirror modules. Arranged in concentric annuli and following a Wolter-Schwartzschild design, the mirror modules are made of several tens of grazing incidence primary-secondary mirror pairs, each mirror made of silicon, coated to increase the effective area of the system, and shaped to bring the incoming photons to a common focus 12 m away. The mission aims to deliver a half-energy width of 5" and an effective area of about 1.4 m2 at 1 keV. We present the status of the optics technology, and illustrate recent X-ray results and the progress made on the environmental testing, manufacturing and assembly aspects of the optics.
Athena is the European Space Agency’s next flagship x-ray telescope, scheduled for launch in the 2030s. Its 2.5-m diameter mirror will be segmented and comprise more than 600 individual Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) grazing-incidence-angle imagers, called mirror modules. Arranged in concentric annuli and following a Wolter-Schwartzschild design, the mirror modules are made of several tens of primary-secondary mirror pairs, each mirror made of mono-crystalline silicon, coated to increase the collective area of the system, and shaped to bring the incoming photons to a common focus 12 m away. Aiming to deliver a half-energy width of 5”, and an effective area of about 1.4 m2 at 1 keV, the Athena mirror requires several hundred m2 of super-polished surfaces with a roughness of about 0.3 nm and a thickness of just 110 µm. SPO, using the highest-grade double-side polished 300 mm wafers commercially available, were invented for this purpose and have been consistently developed over the last several years to enable next-generation x-ray telescopes like Athena. SPO makes it possible to manufacture cost-effective, high-resolution, large-area x-ray optics by using all the advantages that mono-crystalline silicon and the mass production processes of the semiconductor industry provide. Ahead of important programmatic milestones for Athena, we present the status of the technology, and illustrate not only recent x-ray results but also the progress made on the environmental testing, manufacturing and assembly aspects of the technology.
The mirror modules composing Athena’s X-ray optics are made with the Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) technology.
SPO is produced as stacks of 38 mirror plates, which are paired to form X-ray Optics Units (XOUs) following a
modified Wolter I geometry. In the current design, a mirror module is composed of two confocal XOUs glued in
between a pair of brackets that freeze the configuration and provide interfaces to the mirror structure. Mirror
modules are assembled at the XPBF2 beamline of PTB at the synchrotron radiation facility BESSY II, using
dedicated jigs. In this paper we present the latest developments regarding the assembly of confocal mirror
modules for Athena with an emphasis on alignment tolerances and gluing accuracy.
The Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) technology has been established as a new type of X-ray optics and will enable future X-ray observatories such as Athena and Arcus. SPO is being developed at cosine Research B.V. together with the European Space Agency (ESA) and academic as well as industrial partners. For Athena, about 150,000 mirror plates are required. With the technology spin-in from the semiconductor industry, mass production processes can be employed to manufacture rectangular SPO mirror plates in high quality, large quantity and at low cost. Over the last years, several aspects of the SPO mirror plates have been reviewed and undergone further developments in terms of effective area, intrinsic behavior of the mirror plates and mass production capability. The paper will provide an overview of most recent SPO plate designs, mirror plate production status and plan forward including reflective coating process as well as mass production developments.
Athena, the largest space-based x-ray telescope to be flown by the European Space Agency, uses a new modular technology to assemble its 2.5 m diameter lens. The lens will consist of several hundreds of smaller x-ray lenslets, called mirror modules, which each consist of up to 76 stacked mirror pairs. Those mirror modules are arranged in circles in a large optics structure and will focus x-ray photons with an energy of 0.5 to 10 keV at a distance of 12 m onto the detectors of Athena. The point-spread function (PSF) of the optic shall achieve a half-energy width (HEW) of 5” at an energy of 1 keV, with an effective area of about 1.4 m2, corresponding to several hundred m2 of super-polished mirrors with a roughness of about 0.3 nm and a thickness of down to 110 µm. This paper will present the status of the technology and of the mass production capabilities, show latest performance results and discuss the next steps in the development.
Athena, the largest space-based x-ray telescope to be flown by the European Space Agency, uses a revolutionary new modular technology to assemble its 2.6 m diameter lens. The lens will consist of several hundreds of smaller x-ray lenslets, called mirror modules, which each consist of about 70 mirror pairs. Those mirror modules are arranged in circles in a large optics structure and will focus x-ray photons with an energy of 0.5 to 10 keV at a distance of 12 m onto the detectors of Athena. The point-spread function (PSF) of the optic shall achieve a half-energy width (HEW) of 5” at an energy of 1 keV, with an effective area of about 1.4 m2, corresponding to several hundred m2 of super-polished mirrors with a roughness of about 0.3 nm and a thickness of only 150 µm. Silicon Pore Optics (SPO), using the highest grade double-side polished 300 mm wafers commercially available, have been invented to enable such telescopes. SPO allows the cost-effective production of high-resolution, large area, x-ray optics, by using all the advantages that mono-crystalline silicon and the mass production processes of the semi-conductor industry provide. SPO has also shown to be a versatile technology that can be further developed for gamma-ray optics, medical applications and for material research. This paper will present the status of the technology and of the mass production capabilities, show latest performance results and discuss the next steps in the development.
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