Status of x-ray Hybrid CMOS Detector Development Efforts at PSU

The Penn State University High-Energy Astrophysics Detector and Instrumentation (HEADI) Lab, in collaboration with Teledyne Imaging Sensors (TIS), has continued its efforts to improve soft x-ray Hybrid CMOS detectors (HCDs) on several fronts. We report on the read noise and energy resolution for the H1RG and the H2RG using a cryogenic SIDECAR^TM, which gained TRL 9 and flight heritage through the Water Recovery X-ray Rocket Mission in 2018. We also describe the 40-µm event-driven Speedster-EXD HCD, which has been scaled up from a 64×64 array to an 550×550 array. The readout circuitry within the ROIC for the Speedster-EXD contains a high-gain capacitive transimpedance amplifier (CTIA) to negate pixel cross-talk, in-pixel correlated double sampling (CDS) for correction of reset noise variations, and an in-pixel comparator enabling event-driven readout. Here we report on read noise and energy resolution measurements for the Speedster-EXD and discuss the upcoming BlackCAT CubeSAT, on which the Speedster-EXD550 will fly, raising the TRL of these HCDs. Further, to meet the requirements of future high-throughput and high spatial resolution Lynx-like x-ray observatories, HCDs with fast readout and small pixel sizes have been developed. Here we report on the energy resolution and the lowest measured read noise of any x-ray HCD to-date for the 12.5-µm 128×128 prototype Small-pixel HCD, as well as present the current results for the newest x-ray HCD, the Small-pixel1024. The Small-pixel1024 is a 12.5µm 1024×1024 HCD utilizing a high-gain CTIA and in-pixel CDS. Finally, we report on the development efforts between Penn State and Teledyne on a new event-driven HCD, which will retain the low read noise of the Small-pixel HCD while having event-driven capabilities like the Speedster-EXD.