NICER instrument detector subsystem: description and performance

Abstract

© 2016 SPIE. An instrument called Neutron Star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER) will be placed on-board the International Space Station in 2017. It is designed to detect soft X-ray emission from compact sources and to provide both spectral and high resolution timing information about the incoming ux. The focal plane is populated with 56 customized Silicon Drift Detectors. The paper describes the detector system architecture, the electronics and presents the results of the laboratory testing of both ight and engineering units, as well as some of the calibration results obtained with synchrotron radiation in the laboratory of PTB at BESSY II.