The R&D program XDXL (“X-Detector eXtra-Large”) is aimed at optimizing the large-area Silicon Drift Detector developed for the LHC ALICE/ITS for the detection of low energy X-rays. The achievements obtained with the XDXL program enabled to baseline these detectors as the key technology element of the LOFT (“Large Observatory For x-ray Timing”) space mission proposal, selected by the European Space Agency as one of the 4 candidate medium-size missions for the M3 launch opportunity in 2022.
The design of the detector for LOFT is directly derived by the LHC ALICE/ITS detector, with the key property being the large area (<50 cm2) with high spectroscopy performance. However, the implementation of these detectors in space experiments requiring high spectral performance (<250 eV FWHM end-of-life and down to 1-2 keV energy threshold, respectively, both design drivers for LOFT) specific issues need to be addressed, related to the radiation environment where they will need to operate. Among these, the main issue is related to the non-ionizing energy losses, challenging the spectral performance mostly due to the, causing large increase in the leakage current and worsening the spectral resolution and low energy threshold. An intense detector development activity in collaboration with FBK (“Fondazione Bruno Kessler”, Trento) is ongoing, aiming at reducing the sensitivity of the detector to particle radiation.

Silicon drift detectors (SDDs), due to their geometry and collection electrodes capacitance, have excellent noise performance and are well suited for low-energy X-ray spectroscopy applications. On the other hand these detectors, when dedicated to low energy X-ray spectroscopy, have a small sensitive area (from few square millimeters up to one square centimeter) to reduce the leakage current and its impact on the energy resolution. Because of this limitation they are rarely used in applications where large sensitive surfaces are required. We have done the characterization of the spectroscopic performance of a very large sensitive area SDD (about 53 cm**2) that has been realized in the frame of the LHC-ALICE experiment. We have studied the energy resolution of the detector analyzing its dependence on biasing conditions and temperature to evaluate the contribution of the different noise sources exploiting their relation with the shaping time. The first experimental results show that the goal of a high energy resolution combined with large sensitive areas can be achieved. Small area SILICON drift detectors (SDD) have demonstrated excellent energy resolution because of their very small read-out anode geometry (hence capacitance) which allows to minimize the contribution of the electronic noise of the preamplifier on the overall performance of the detection system. For these devices the leakage current becomes the limiting factor of the energy resolution. Like all silicon drift detectors the ALICE SDD has a feature that makes it very attractive for low-energy X-ray spectroscopy applications: its anode capacitance is about 50 fF, allowing for a very-low noise contribution from the front-end electronics. Moreover, the leakage current at the anode measured at room temperature can reach very low values
(even below 10 pA), providing the basis for good spectroscopy performances. Considering its sensitive area, more than an order of magnitude larger than that of the standard SDDs, this detector is opening the way to application areas of X-ray spectroscopy today inaccessible. Our collaboration is facing this problematics from all points of view, the design of the detector's electrodes, the VLSI electronics, the lay-out of possible integrated detectors with a detailed look to the various very motivating applications in the field of X-ray astrophysics, medical applications and spectroscopy. The goal is to demonstrate the superiority of the SDD to other Si solutions also for large area and open the way to the various applications.

We have shown that the goal is possible, we have obtained and published excellent results on the energy resolution at room temperature. Those results are very innovative given the dimensions of our detector and have prompted a wide reaction from the potential users. This can be seen in the various contribution to conferences
and publications reported here below.

Meanwhile the design work of new devices has been completed and the first production iteration with FBK has been delivered. Once more the results are satisfactory. In particular a number of upgrade in the design of the large area detector seems to have brought to seizable improvements in the leakage current and in the low energy efficiency of the detectors.
We are working hard to completely characterize the detectors and deliver a new design to FBK.

ASIC development (BOLOGNA)
It was designed and made the PCB for the ASICs v2 + SDD. It was designed and made the sealed vacuum proof container and shielding with Peltier cooling system suitable for test in the soft X-ray facility of the IAPS-Rome (INAF). It has been performed tests of the ASIC v2. Then we proceeded to make the bonding of the SDD and preliminary tests. The ASIC v2, is performing on the single cell (a channel of read-out) however, as they are read all channels, the MUX introduces an excess of noise. Then a further version (ASIC v3) was projected and realized.
The tests of ASIC v3, without detector, were carried out. These tests must be completed (the bonding of a SDD is now in progress), but we can already observe that this version of the ASIC fulfills the requirements for LOFT: all parties are now functioning and the noise is < 20 electrons RMS on a capacity equivalent to that of SDD.
Calorimeter stage development (BOLOGNA)
Measurements to optimize the trigger electronics (that serves to measure the time of flight of the charge in the SDD) have been carried out, the speed of the trigger is now < 1 ns.


ABOUT LOFT Physics objectives:
LOFT, the Large Observatory For X-ray Timing, is a newly proposed space mission intended to answer fundamental questions about the motion of matter orbiting close to the event horizon of a black hole, and the state of matter in neutron stars.
Why X-ray timing?
High-time-resolution X-ray observations of compact objects (as the Galactic and extraGalactic neutron stars and black holes) provide a unique tool to investigate strong-field gravity, and give direct access to measurements of black hole masses and spins, and to he equation of state of ultradense matter.

Why LOFT?
A 10 m2-class instrument in combination with good spectral resolution is required to exploit the relevant diagnostics and answer two fundamental questions of ESA's Cosmic Vision Theme Matter under extreme conditions, namely:

Does matter orbiting close to the event horizon follow the predictions of general relativity?

What is the equation of state of matter in neutron stars?

Thanks to an innovative design and the development of large monolithic silicon drift detectors, the Large Area Detector (LAD) on board the Large Observatory For x-ray Timing (LOFT) achieves an effective area of ~12 m2 (more than an order of magnitude larger than current spaceborne X-ray detectors) in the 2-30 keV range (up to 50 keV in expanded mode), yet still fits a conventional platform and small/medium-class launcher. With this large area and a spectral resolution of <260 eV over its entire band, LOFT will revolutionise the study of collapsed objects in our galaxy and of the brightest supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei, yielding unprecedented information on strongly curved spacetimes and matter under extreme conditions of pressure and magnetic field strength.

ON the base of our results LOFT was recently selected by ESA as one of the four space missions concepts of the Cosmic Vision programme that will compete for a launch opportunity at the start of the 2020s.

ACTIVITY 2012:
Brief report 2012

The 2012 activity of the Trieste group was focused on the characterization and development of the Silicon Drift Detectors realized in collaboration with Fondazione Bruno Kessler. The detectors of the second production run concluded at the end of 2011 where thoroughly tested in order to analyze the implemented process splits. The measurements showed that both n-spray and positive field plates guarantee a good control of the SiO2-Si interface in the active regions of the SDDs when the oxide charge is above 8·1010 ions/cm2 (the minimum measured oxide charge was 7.3·1010 ions/cm2): surface leakage generation is effectively repressed because Si depletion does not reach the SiO2-Si interface , and no cathode punch-through was observed in the whole high voltage bias operative range required of the detector.
The characterization of the spectroscopy SDDs was carried out also by measuring radioactive sources spectra using the discrete, multi-channel front-end electronics designed for the ALICE SDD setup. Even thought the preamplifier is not optimized for the purpose, an energy resolution of 209 eV FWHM at -16 °C (ENC = 20 eV) was obtained for the Mn-kα peak of 55Fe with a detector leakage current of 12 pA. The results were presented at the 12th Pisa Meeting on Advanced Detectors, and an article is in press on the journal Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A. In 2013 the measurements will be repeated using the low-power, low-noise ASIC developed by the XDXL collaboration (Milano and Pavia groups) for the large-area linear SDDs of LOFT-LAD.

To reduce the process steps and improve yield, it was decided to use only positive field plates in the third prototype production. The large-area linear SDD design was revisited to implement anode pitches of 967 and 147 µm on the two detector halves in order to produce the first LOFT LAD-like and WFM-like sensors on a 4" wafer. The integrated voltage dividers were extended down to the last field-shaping cathode to minimize the bias connections, leaving the necessary flexibility to optimize the collection zone potential distribution by selecting an appropriate value for the external resistor required to close the circuit to ground. A process split on the metallization layers was done to include positive field plates also on top of the implanted resistors of the voltage dividers. The layout of the wafer was completed with single-anode spectroscopy SDDs as single devices and arrays. In October 2012 FBK would start the transition of the production line to 6" wafers, hence it was decided to produce two sequential batches of 20 wafers each in order to have a sufficient number of detectors for the needs of the LOFT assessment phase tests and to try a rough estimation of production yield.

During the year, the Trieste group continued its support to the LOFT assessment phase by both participating to several collaboration meetings on the detector, front-end integrated electronics, and system developments, and realizing various setups for the spatial qualification of the large-area SDD.
In collaboration with the INAF/Roma 2 group and Tubingen University colleagues, one debris impact test and two soft-proton irradiations were carried out. The first test was not conclusive, even if only one out of more than one hundred impacts produced an increase in the leakage current of the detector (the used olivine particles where not completely representative of the orbit environment), and a new test will be done in May 2013 using also diode arrays to try a measurement of the damage of particle size and velocity in terms of both crater dimensions and increased leakage current.
The irradiation campaigns showed that the soft-proton component is not an issue for the LOFT mission. Moreover, a surprising response was consistently observed where the increase of the detector leakage current due to the irradiation is a third of the one calculated with the standard procedures. We presume that this effect is due to a larger defect recombination in the Bragg peak region, but further tests with simpler devices (diodes) are required to confirm this hypothesis. It is to be noted that the NIEL estimations are based on measurements taken on very thin devices (bipolar transistors mostly) that the particles cross without stopping in the active region. An article on the test results is in preparation.

In 2012 our group started collaborating with the Detectors and Instrumentation laboratory of Sincrotrone Trieste with the aim to develop soft X-ray (200 eV – 20 keV) detectors, based on SDDs, to be operated on the beam lines of Elettra and Fermi. In fact, most of the detectors used up to now are not optimized for the goals of the experiments, and there also exist beam lines for which no detectors are as yet available.
Among the several systems requiring improvements we selected the low-energy X-ray fluorescence detectors of the TwinMic beam line. Here the goal is to increase the sensitive area and reach a geometric factor ten times larger than that of the present detectors, reducing in this way the sample scan time (for an increased throughput) and the test campaign cost for the end users (the scientists investigating the properties of the sample). The solution we are investigating consists in replacing the eight 30 mm2 SDDs, which are mounted on the cold plate of TwinMic, with four trapezoidal detectors each composed of 20 square and 8 triangular SDD cells of 9 and 4.5 mm2 areas respectively. Having smaller cells allows a reduction of the detector distance from the sample, hence an increase in the geometric coverage of the fluorescence photon flux, maintaining at the same time reasonable cell occupancy. A further advantage of a smaller cell size is the increased drift field that allows to reduce the peaking time of the shaper without incurring in ballistic deficit penalties.
The trapezoidal detectors were included into the wafer layout of the third prototype production at FBK that was delivered in October 2012. The detectors have a total leakage current between 4 and 9 nA at 23 °C, corresponding to square cell currents in the range 170 to 380 pA. Since the leakage current halves about every 7 °C decrease in temperature, then these detectors are expected to operate at temperatures at least below -20 °C. It is possible to decrease the leakage current using sophisticated process steps, such as impurities gettering, which promise an improvement of an order of magnitude allowing to increase the operating temperature of about 20 °C. The detector will be initially read out with the 32 channel front-end ASIC developed for the LOFT-LAD linear SDD as a proof of principle (the input bond wires will be very long worsening the energy resolution), and then a dedicated integrated electronics will be designed within the frame of the new CSN5 project ReDSoX. Because the entrance window of the detector is not yet optimized for soft X-ray photons (the principal application addressed at the time of production was LOFT), the first tests of the system will use radioactive sources, and are foreseen in May 2013.

The first characterization tests of the large-area SDDs of the third run show that the oxide charge of very clean production processes can be very low for 100 oriented Silicon: a value as low as 5.2·1010 ions/cm2 was measured. While this is good because it testifies in favor of an extremely good SiO2-Si interface (that can be verified by a low surface generation), at the end it results in a limited protection from cathode punch-through that the positive field plates are not able to fully contrast. In the 6" productions that will be carried out in the frame of the ReDSoX experiment, positive field plates will be assisted by n-spray implants to overcome the problem. A second promising approach will be tested that increases the oxide charge using a TEOS deposition on top of the thermal oxide.



Publications 2012

The Large Observatory for X-ray Timing (LOFT)
Experimental Astronomy, Volume 34, Issue 2, pp.415-444
Feroci, M.; Stella, L.; van der Klis, M.; Courvoisier, T. J.-L.; Hernanz, M.; Hudec, R.; Santangelo, A.; Walton, D.; Zdziarski, A.; Barret, D.; Belloni, T.; Braga, J.; Brandt, S.; Budtz-Jørgensen, C.; Campana, S.; den Herder, J.-W.; Huovelin, J.; Israel, G. L.; Pohl, M.; Ray, P.; Vacchi, A.; Zane, S.; Argan, A.; Attinà, P.; Bertuccio, G.; Bozzo, E.; Campana, R.; Chakrabarty, D.; Costa, E.; De Rosa, A.; Del Monte, E.; Di Cosimo, S.; Donnarumma, I.; Evangelista, Y.; Haas, D.; Jonker, P.; Korpela, S.; Labanti, C.; Malcovati, P.; Mignani, R.; Muleri, F.; Rapisarda, M.; Rashevsky, A.; Rea, N.; Rubini, A.; Tenzer, C.; Wilson-Hodge, C.; Winter, B.; Wood, K.; Zampa, G.; Zampa, N.; Abramowicz, M. A.; Alpar, M. A.; Altamirano, D.; Alvarez, J. M.; Amati, L.; Amoros, C.; Antonelli, L. A.; Artigue, R.; Azzarello, P.; Bachetti, M.; Baldazzi, G.; Barbera, M.; Barbieri, C.; Basa, S.; Baykal, A.; Belmont, R.; Boirin, L.; Bonvicini, V.; Burderi, L.; Bursa, M.; Cabanac, C.; Cackett, E.; Caliandro, G. A.; Casella, P.; Chaty, S.; Chenevez, J.; Coe, M. J.; Collura, A.; Corongiu, A.; Covino, S.; Cusumano, G.; D'Amico, F.; Dall'Osso, S.; De Martino, D.; De Paris, G.; Di Persio, G.; Di Salvo, T.; Done, C.; Dovčiak, M.; Drago, A.; Ertan, U.; Fabiani, S.; Falanga, M.; Fender, R.; Ferrando, P.; Della Monica Ferreira, D.; Fraser, G.; Frontera, F.; Fuschino, F.; Galvez, J. L.; Gandhi, P.; Giommi, P.; Godet, O.; Göǧüş, E.; Goldwurm, A.; Götz, D.; Grassi, M.; Guttridge, P.; Hakala, P.; Henri, G.; Hermsen, W.; Horak, J.; Hornstrup, A.; in't Zand, J. J. M.; Isern, J.; Kalemci, E.; Kanbach, G.; Karas, V.; Kataria, D.; Kennedy, T.; Klochkov, D.; Kluźniak, W.; Kokkotas, K.; Kreykenbohm, I.; Krolik, J.; Kuiper, L.; Kuvvetli, I.; Kylafis, N.; Lattimer, J. M.; Lazzarotto, F.; Leahy, D.; Lebrun, F.; Lin, D.; Lund, N.; Maccarone, T.; Malzac, J.; Marisaldi, M.; Martindale, A.; Mastropietro, M.; McClintock, J.; McHardy, I.; Mendez, M.; Mereghetti, S.; Miller, M. C.; Mineo, T.; Morelli, E.; Morsink, S.; Motch, C.; Motta, S.; Muñoz-Darias, T.; Naletto, G.; Neustroev, V.; Nevalainen, J.; Olive, J. F.; Orio, M.; Orlandini, M.; Orleanski, P.; Ozel, F.; Pacciani, L.; Paltani, S.; Papadakis, I.; Papitto, A.; Patruno, A.; Pellizzoni, A.; Petráček, V.; Petri, J.; Petrucci, P. O.; Phlips, B.; Picolli, L.; Possenti, A.; Psaltis, D.; Rambaud, D.; Reig, P.; Remillard, R.; Rodriguez, J.; Romano, P.; Romanova, M.; Schanz, T.; Schmid, C.; Segreto, A.; Shearer, A.; Smith, A.; Smith, P. J.; Soffitta, P.; Stergioulas, N.; Stolarski, M.; Stuchlik, Z.; Tiengo, A.; Torres, D.; Török, G.; Turolla, R.; Uttley, P.; Vaughan, S.; Vercellone, S.; Waters, R.; Watts, A.; Wawrzaszek, R.; Webb, N.; Wilms, J.; Zampieri, L.; Zezas, A.; Ziolkowski, J.
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10686-011-9237-2


Publ. (not ISI) 2012

A Proposed Italian Contribution for the Mirax Scientific Payload
International Journal of Modern Physics: Conference Series, vol. 12, issue 01, p. 110
Evangelista, Y.; Feroci, M.; Argan, A.; Campana, R.; Costa, E.; Del Monte, E.; Donnarumma, I.; Lazzarotto, F.; Muleri, F.; Pacciani, L.; Rapisarda, M.; Rubini, A.; Soffitta, P.; Amati, L.; Labanti, C.; Fuschino, F.; Maiorano, E.; Marisaldi, M.; Masetti, N.; Morelli, E.; Nicastro, L.; Orlandini, M.; Palazzi, E.; Traci, A.; Frontera, F.; Drago, A.; Farinelli, R.; Titarchuk, L.; Vacchi, A.; Rashevski, A.; Zampa, G.; Zampa, N.; Ruffini, R.; Bertuccio, G.; Bombaci, I.; Ghisellini, G.; Grassi, M.; Malcovati, P.; Picolli, L.; Lazzati, D.; Pian, E.; Salvaterra, R.; Braga, J.
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S2010194512006319

LOFT: the Large Observatory For X-ray Timing
Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 8443, article id. 84432D, 16 pp. (2012).
Feroci, M.; den Herder, J. W.; Bozzo, E.; Barret, D.; Brandt, S.; Hernanz, M.; van der Klis, M.; Pohl, M.; Santangelo, A.; Stella, L.; Watts, A.; Wilms, J.; Zane, S.; Ahangarianabhari, M.; Alpar, A.; Altamirano, D.; Alvarez, L.; Amati, L.; Amoros, C.; Andersson, N.; Antonelli, A.; Argan, A.; Artigue, R.; Azzarello, P.; Baldazzi, G.; Balman, S.; Barbera, M.; Belloni, T.; Bertuccio, G.; Bianchi, S.; Bianchini, A.; Bodin, P.; Bonnet Bidaud, J.-M.; Boutloukos, S.; Braga, J.; Brown, E.; Bucciantini, N.; Burderi, L.; Bursa, M.; Budtz-Jørgensen, C.; Cackett, E.; Cadoux, F. R.; Cais, P.; Caliandro, G. A.; Campana, R.; Campana, S.; Casella, P.; Chakrabarty, D.; Chenevez, J.; Coker, J.; Cole, R.; Collura, A.; Courvoisier, T.; Cros, A.; Cumming, A.; Cusumano, G.; D'Ai, A.; D'Elia, V.; Del Monte, E.; de Martino, D.; De Rosa, A.; Di Cosimo, S.; Diebold, S.; Di Salvo, T.; Donnarumma, I.; Drago, A.; Durant, M.; Emmanoulopoulos, D.; Evangelista, Y.; Fabian, A.; Falanga, M.; Favre, Y.; Feldman, C.; Ferrigno, C.; Finger, M. H.; Fraser, G. W.; Fuschino, F.; Galloway, D. K.; Galvez Sanchez, J. L.; Garcia-Berro, E.; Gendre, B.; Gezari, S.; Giles, A. B.; Gilfanov, M.; Giommi, P.; Giovannini, G.; Giroletti, M.; Goldwurm, A.; Götz, D.; Gouiffes, C.; Grassi, M.; Groot, P.; Guidorzi, C.; Haas, D.; Hansen, F.; Hartmann, D. H.; Haswell, C. A.; Heger, A.; Homan, J.; Hornstrup, A.; Hudec, R.; Huovelin, J.; Ingram, A.; In't Zand, J. J. M.; Isern, J.; Israel, G.; Izzo, L.; Jonker, P.; Kaaret, P.; Karas, V.; Karelin, D.; Kataria, D.; Keek, L.; Kennedy, T.; Klochkov, D.; Kluzniak, W.; Kokkotas, K.; Korpela, S.; Kouveliotou, C.; Kreykenbohm, I.; Kuiper, L. M.; Kuvvetli, I.; Labanti, C.; Lai, D.; Lamb, F. K.; Lebrun, F.; Lin, D.; Linder, D.; Lodato, G.; Longo, F.; Lund, N.; Maccarone, T. J.; Macera, D.; Maier, D.; Malcovati, P.; Mangano, V.; Manousakis, A.; Marisaldi, M.; Markowitz, A.; Martindale, A.; Matt, G.; McHardy, I. M.; Melatos, A.; Mendez, M.; Migliari, S.; Mignani, R.; Miller, M. C.; Miller, J. M.; Mineo, T.; Miniutti, G.; Morsink, S.; Motch, C.; Motta, S.; Mouchet, M.; Muleri, F.; Norton, A. J.; Nowak, M.; O'Brien, P.; Orienti, M.; Orio, M.; Orlandini, M.; Orleanski, P.; Osborne, J. P.; Osten, R.; Ozel, F.; Pacciani, L.; Papitto, A.; Paul, B.; Perinati, E.; Petracek, V.; Portell, J.; Poutanen, J.; Psaltis, D.; Rambaud, D.; Ramsay, G.; Rapisarda, M.; Rachevski, A.; Ray, P. S.; Rea, N.; Reddy, S.; Reig, P.; Reina Aranda, M.; Remillard, R.; Reynolds, C.; Rodríguez-Gil, P.; Rodriguez, J.; Romano, P.; Rossi, E. M. R.; Ryde, F.; Sabau-Graziati, L.; Sala, G.; Salvaterra, R.; Sanna, A.; Schanne, S.; Schee, J.; Schmid, C.; Schwenk, A.; Schwope, A. D.; Seyler, J.-Y.; Shearer, A.; Smith, A.; Smith, D. M.; Smith, P. J.; Sochora, V.; Soffitta, P.; Soleri, P.; Stappers, B.; Steltzer, B.; Stergioulas, N.; Stratta, G.; Strohmayer, T. E.; Stuchlik, Z.; Suchy, S.; Sulemainov, V.; Takahashi, T.; Tamburini, F.; Tenzer, C.; Tolos, L.; Torok, G.; Torrejon, J. M.; Torres, D. F.; Tramacere, A.; Trois, A.; Turriziani, S.; Uter, P.; Uttley, P.; Vacchi, A.; Varniere, P.; Vaughan, S.; Vercellone, S.; Vrba, V.; Walton, D.; Watanabe, S.; Wawrzaszek, R.; Webb, N.; Weinberg, N.; Wende, H.; Wheatley, P.; Wijers, R.; Wijnands, R.; Wille, M.; Wilson-Hodge, C. A.; Winter, B.; Wood, K.; Zampa, G.; Zampa, N.; Zampieri, L.; Zdziarski, A.; Zhang, B.
http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=1361057

Accelerator experiments with soft protons and hyper-velocity dust particles: application to ongoing projects of future x-ray missions
Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 8443, article id. 84430O, 13 pp. (2012).
Perinati, E.; Diebold, S.; Kendziorra, E.; Santangelo, A.; Tenzer, C.; Jochum, J.; Bugiel, S.; Srama, R.; Del Monte, E.; Feroci, M.; Rubini, A.; Rachevski, A.; Zampa, G.; Zampa, N.; Rashevskaya, I.; Vacchi, A.; Azzarello, P.; Bozzo, E.; den Herder, J.-W.; Zane, S.; Brandt, S.; Hernanz, M.; Leutenegger, M. A.; Kelley, R. L.; Kilbourne, C. A.; Meidinger, N.; Strüder, L.; Cordier, B.; Götz, D.; Fraser, G. W.; Osborne, J. P.; Dennerl, K.; Freyberg, M.; Friedrich, P.
http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=1361010

The LOFT wide field monitor simulator
Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 8443, article id. 84435Q, 12 pp. (2012).
Donnarumma, Immacolata; Evangelista, Yuri; Campana, Riccardo; In't Zand, Jean; Feroci, Marco; Lund, Niels; Brandt, Søren; Wilms, Jörn; Schmid, Christian
http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=1361157

Simulations of the x-ray imaging capabilities of the silicon drift detectors (SDD) for the LOFT wide-field monitor
Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 8443, article id. 84435P, 10 pp. (2012).
Evangelista, Y.; Campana, R.; Del Monte, E.; Donnarumma, I.; Feroci, M.; Muleri, F.; Pacciani, L.; Soffitta, P.; Rachevski, A.; Vacchi, A.; Zampa, G.; Zampa, N.; Suchy, S.; Brandt, S.; Budtz-Jørgensen, C.; Hernanz, M.
http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=1361156

The LOFT (Large Observatory for X-ray Timing) background simulations
Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 8443, article id. 84435O, 9 pp. (2012).
Campana, R.; Feroci, M.; Del Monte, E.; Brandt, S.; Budtz-Jørgensen, C.; Lund, N.; Alvarez, J.; Hernanz, M.; Perinati, E.
http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=1361155

Calibration strategies for the LAD instrument on-board LOFT
Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 8443, article id. 84435N, 12 pp. (2012).
Pacciani, Luigi; Soffitta, Paolo; Argan, Andrea; Barret, Didier; Bozzo, Enrico; Feroci, Marco; Fraser, George W.; den Herder, Jan-Willem; Pohl, Martin; Schmid, Christian; Tenzer, Chris; Vacchi, Andrea; Walton, Dave; Zampa, Gianluigi; Zane, Silvia
http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=1361154

The on-board data handling concept for the LOFT large area detector
Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 8443, article id. 84435M, 12 pp. (2012).
Suchy, S.; Uter, P.; Tenzer, C.; Santangelo, A.; Argan, A.; Feroci, M.; Kennedy, T. E.; Smith, P. J.; Walton, D.; Zane, S.; Portell, J.; García-Berro, E.
http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=1361153

The LOFT wide field monitor
Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 8443, article id. 84432G, 14 pp. (2012).
Brandt, S.; Hernanz, M.; Alvarez, L.; Azzarello, P.; Barret, D.; Bozzo, E.; Budtz-Jørgensen, C.; Campana, R.; del Monte, E.; Donnarumma, I.; Evangalista, Y.; Feroci, M.; Galvez Sanchez, J. L.; Götz, D.; Hansen, F.; den Herder, J. W.; Hudec, R.; Huovelin, J.; Karelin, D.; Korpela, S.; Lund, N.; Orleanski, P.; Pohl, M.; Rashevski, A.; Santangelo, A.; Schanne, S.; Schmid, C.; Suchy, S.; Tenzer, C.; Vacchi, A.; Wilms, J.; Zampa, G.; Zampa, N.; in't Zand, J.; Zdziarski, A.
http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=1361060

A large area detector proposed for the Large Observatory for X-ray Timing (LOFT)
Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray. Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 8443, article id. 84432F, 15 pp. (2012).
Zane, S.; Walton, D.; Kennedy, T.; Feroci, M.; Den Herder, J.-W.; Ahangarianabhari, M.; Argan, A.; Azzarello, P.; Baldazzi, G.; Barret, D.; Bertuccio, G.; Bodin, P.; Bozzo, E.; Cadoux, F.; Cais, P.; Campana, R.; Coker, J.; Cros, A.; Del Monte, E.; De Rosa, Alessandra; Di Cosimo, S.; Donnarumma, I.; Evangelista, Y.; Favre, Y.; Feldman, C.; Fraser, G.; Fuschino, F.; Grassi, M.; Hailey, M. R.; Hudec, R.; Labanti, C.; Macera, D.; Malcovati, P.; Marisaldi, M.; Martindale, A.; Mineo, T.; Muleri, F.; Nowak, M.; Orlandini, M.; Pacciani, L.; Perinati, E.; Petracek, V.; Pohl, M.; Rachevski, A.; Smith, P.; Santangelo, A.; Seyler, J.-Y.; Schmid, C.; Soffitta, P.; Suchy, S.; Tenzer, C.; Uttley, P.; Vacchi, A.; Zampa, G.; Zampa, N.; Wilms, J.; Winter, B.
http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=1361059



Talks 2012

LOFT: the Large Observatory For X-ray Timing
Speaker: Marco Feroci (INFN – Roma Tor Vergata)
SPIE Conference 8443 - Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray
Amsterdam, The Netherlands | July 01, 2012
Organized by SPIE

A large area detector proposed for the Large Observatory for X-ray Timing (LOFT)
Speaker: Marco Feroci (INFN – Roma Tor Vergata)
SPIE Conference 8443 - Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray
Amsterdam, The Netherlands | July 01, 2012
Organized by SPIE




S. Zane, D. Walton, T. Kennedy, M. Feroci, J.-W. Den Herder, M. Ahangarianabhari, A. Argan, P. Azzarello, Baldazzi G, D. Barret, G. Bertuccio, P. Bodin, E. Bozzo, F Cadoux, P. Cais, R. Campana, J. Coker, A. Cros, E. Del Monte, Alessandra De Rosa, S. Di Cosimo, I. Donnarumma, Y. Evangelista, Y. Favre, C. Feldman, G. Fraser, F. Fuschino, M. Grassi, M. R. Hailey, R. Hudec, C. Labanti, D. Macera, P. Malcovati, M. Marisaldi, A. Martindale, T. Mineo, F. Muleri, M. Nowak, M. Orlandini, L. Pacciani, E. Perinati, V. Petracek, M. Pohl, A. Rachevski, P. Smith, A. Santangelo, J.-Y. Seyler, C. Schmid, P. Soffitta, S. Suchy, C. Tenzer, P. Uttley, A. Vacchi, G. Zampa, N. Zampa, J. Wilms, B. Winter (2012). A large area detector proposed for the Large Observatory for X-ray Timing (LOFT). In: Proceedings of SPIE: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM). Proc. SPIE 8443, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 84432F (September 17, 2012); doi:10.1117/12.925156, ISSN: 0277-786X, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

S. Zane, D. Walton, T. Kennedy, M. Feroci, J.-W. Den Herder, M. Ahangarianabhari, A. Argan, P. Azzarello, Baldazzi G, D. Barret, G. Bertuccio, P. Bodin, E. Bozzo, F Cadoux, P. Cais, R. Campana, J. Coker, A. Cros, E. Del Monte, Alessandra De Rosa, S. Di Cosimo, I. Donnarumma, Y. Evangelista, Y. Favre, C. Feldman, G. Fraser, F. Fuschino, M. Grassi, M. R. Hailey, R. Hudec, C. Labanti, D. Macera, P. Malcovati, M. Marisaldi, A. Martindale, T. Mineo, F. Muleri, M. Nowak, M. Orlandini, L. Pacciani, E. Perinati, V. Petracek, M. Pohl, A. Rachevski, P. Smith, A. Santangelo, J.-Y. Seyler, C. Schmid, P. Soffitta, S. Suchy, C. Tenzer, P. Uttley, A. Vacchi, G. Zampa, N. Zampa, J. Wilms, B. Winter (2012). LOFT - The large observatory for x-ray timing Proceedings of SPIE Volume 8443, 2012, Article number84432D Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray;Amsterdam;1 July 2012through6 July 2012;Code94721 ISSN: 0277786X ISBN: 978-081949144-2

M. Ahangarianabari, G.Bertuccio, D. Macera, P. Malcovati, M. Grassi, G. Baldazzi, M. Feroci, C. Labanti, A. Vacchi, G. Zampa, N. Zampa, Readout Front-End Electronics for Large Area X-Ray Linear Silicon Drift Detectors for Space Missions, 2012 IEEE NSS/MIC/RTSD Anaheim, California, 27 October – 3 November 2012.



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ACTIVITY 2011:
G.Zampa et al., Room-temperature spectroscopic performance of a very-large area silicon drift detector, Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 633 (2011) 15–21

R. Campana et al., Imaging performance of a large-area Silicon Drift Detector for X-ray astronomy, Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 633 (2011) 22–30

P. Rossi et al., Design and performance tests of the calorimetric tract of a Compton Camera for small-animals imaging, Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 628 (2011) 430–433

G. Zampa et al., X-ray imaging and spectroscopy performance of a large area silicon drift chamber for wide-field x-ray astronomy applications, Proc. SPIE 7732, 77324M (2010)

R. Campana et al., Concept for an innovative wide-field camera for x-ray astronomy, Proc. SPIE 7732, 77324L (2010)

M. Feroci et al., LOFT: a large observatory for x-ray timing, Proc. SPIE 7732, 77321V (2010)

ROSSI P., BALDAZZI G., BATTISTELLA A., BELLO M., BOLLINI D., BONVICINI V., FONTANA C.L., GENNARO G., MOSCHINI G., NAVARRIA F., RASHEVSKY A., UZUNOV N., ZAMPA G., ZAMPA N., VACCHI A., A “Compton” Gamma Rays Detector for Small-Animals Imaging, Nat. Lab. of Legnaro (Italy), INFN-LNL-230(2010) pp.145-146, ISSN 1828-8545



Conferenze

G. Zampa, Very Large Area, Position Sensitive Silicon Drift Detectors for X-ray Spectroscopy Applications, 2010 CMOS Emerging Technologies Workshop, May 19th-21st, 2010, Whistler, BC, Canada (presentazione orale)

R. Campana, X-ray imaging and spectroscopy performance of a large area silicon drift chamber for wide-field x-ray astronomy applications, SPIE Symposium on SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation: Observational Frontiers of Astronomy for the New Decade, 27 June-2 July 2010, San Diego, California, United States (poster)

R. Campana, Concept for an innovative wide-field camera for x-ray astronomy, SPIE Symposium on SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation: Observational Frontiers of Astronomy for the New Decade, 27 June-2 July 2010, San Diego, California, United States (poster)

M. Feroci, LOFT: a large observatory for x-ray timing, SPIE Symposium on SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation: Observational Frontiers of Astronomy for the New Decade, 27 June-2 July 2010, San Diego, California, United States (presentazione orale)

ROSSI P., Biomedical Application of Gamma Rays "Compton" Detectors, Invited Talk and abstract, colloquium on Ion Beam Applications in Material Science, Centre of Excellence on Nanostructured Interfaces and Surfaces of the University of Torino (NIS), March30, 2010

ROSSI P., BALDAZZI G., BATTISTELLA A., BELLO M., BOLLINI D., BONVICINI V., FONTANA C. L., GENNARO G., MOSCHINI G., NAVARRIA F., RASHEVSKY A., UZUNOV N., ZAMPA G., ZAMPA N., VACCHI A., X Rays Compton Detectors for Biomedical Application, Abstract and Invited talk at the 21th CAARI-10, Fort Worth (TX), August 8 – 13, 2010

FONTANA C. L., BALDAZZI G., BATTISTELLA A., BELLO M., BOLLINI D., GALLI M., MOSCHINI G., NAVARRIA F., ZAMPA G., ZAMPA N., ROSSI P., Tomographic Back-Projection Algorithm for "Incomplete" Compton X-rays Detectors, Abstract at the 21th CAARI-10, Fort Worth (TX), August 8 – 13, 2010