Photon-counting-intensified CID detector for space astronomy

We are developing a novel solar blind, high resolution, photon counting detector for applications in space UV astronomy. Our concept is to utilize a charge injection device (CID) as the readout stage behind a microchannel plate (MCP) intensifier. This detector will take advantage of the flexible readout options afforded by the addressable CID architecture to provide high local frame rates around bright features in an image. In this concept, the detector bandwidth can be used most efficiently, reading pixels around a bright star more frequently than those in a nearby dim cloud of gas, for example. The demonstration apparatus described in this paper incorporates a 25 mm diameter intensifier tube fiber optically coupled to a commercially available 30 frame-s -1 , 512 X 512 pixel, progressive-scan CID2250 camera. The 10 MHz analog video from this camera is digitized and processed by a centroider module that calculates the position of each event in real time with subpixel precision, thus providing high spatial resolution limited by the MCPs. The pore-resolved images presented in this paper validate the intensified CID concept. We plan to incorporates custom driving electronics and an experimental CID with on-chip address decoders for high speed random access of detector subarrays of arbitrary size and location. Our goal is to demonstrate a solar-blind UV photon counter with 200-300 counts-s -1 point source and 3 X 10 5 counts-s -1 global rate capability with up to 4000 by 4000 elements.