We present the single event effect (SEE) tolerance of a mixed-signal application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) developed for a charge-coupled device camera onboard a future X-ray astronomical mission. We adopted proton and heavy ion beams at HIM
AC/NIRS in Japan. The particles with high linear energy transfer (LET) of 57.9 MeV cm^{2}/mg is used to measure the single event latch-up (SEL) tolerance, which results in a sufficiently low cross-section of sigma_{SEL} < 4.2x10^{-11} cm^{2}/(IonxASIC). The single event upset (SEU) tolerance is estimated with various kinds of species with wide range of energy. Taking into account that a part of the protons creates recoiled heavy ions that has higher LET than that of the incident protons, we derived the probability of SEU event as a function of LET. Then the SEE event rate in a low-earth orbit is estimated considering a simulation result of LET spectrum. SEL rate is below once per 49 years, which satisfies the required latch-up tolerance. The upper limit of the SEU rate is derived to be 1.3x10^{-3}events/sec. Although the SEU events cannot be distinguished from the signals of X-ray photons from astronomical objects, the derived SEU rate is below 1.3% of expected non-X-ray background rate of the detector and hence these events should not be a major component of the instrumental background.
This paper reports on the first results of the Suzaku observation in the Sgr C region. We detected four diffuse clumps with strong line emission at 6.4keV, Ka from neutral or low-ionized Fe. One of them, M359.38-0.00, is newly discovered with Suzaku.
The X-ray spectra of the two bright clumps, M359.43-0.07 and M359.47-0.15, after subtracting the Galactic center diffuse X-ray emission (GCDX), exhibit strong Ka line from FeI with large equivalent widths (EWs) of 2.0-2.2keV and clear Kb of FeI. The GCDX in the Sgr C region is composed of the 6.4keV- and 6.7keV-associated components. These are phenomenologically decomposed by taking relations between EWs of the 6.4keV and 6.7keV lines. Then the former EWs against the associated continuum in the bright clump regions are estimated to be 2.4(+2.3_-0.7)keV. Since the two different approaches give similar large EWs of 2keV, we strongly suggest that the 6.4keV clumps in the Sgr C region are due to X-ray reflection/fluorescence (the X-ray reflection nebulae).
A charge injection technique is applied to the X-ray CCD camera, XIS (X-ray Imaging Spectrometer) onboard Suzaku. The charge transfer inefficiency (CTI) in each CCD column (vertical transfer channel) is measured by the injection of charge packets int
o a transfer channel and subsequent readout. This paper reports the performances of the charge injection capability based on the ground experiments using a radiation damaged device, and in-orbit measurements of the XIS. The ground experiments show that charges are stably injected with the dispersion of 91eV in FWHM in a specific column for the charges equivalent to the X-ray energy of 5.1keV. This dispersion width is significantly smaller than that of the X-ray events of 113eV (FWHM) at approximately the same energy. The amount of charge loss during transfer in a specific column, which is measured with the charge injection capability, is consistent with that measured with the calibration source. These results indicate that the charge injection technique can accurately measure column-dependent charge losses rather than the calibration sources. The column-to-column CTI correction to the calibration source spectra significantly reduces the line widths compared to those with a column-averaged CTI correction (from 193eV to 173eV in FWHM on an average at the time of one year after the launch). In addition, this method significantly reduces the low energy tail in the line profile of the calibration source spectrum.
