CAMEX readout ASICs for pnCCDs

For the readout of pnCCD we developed a series of CAMEX ASICs since the early 90’s. With the advent of DEPFET PIXEL detectors the existing CAMEX readout chip was adopted for these new detectors. The actual generation of CAMEX readout chips is fabricated in a standard 5V CMOS technology with JFET option at the Fraunhofer IMS in Duisburg, Germany. To qualify the new CAMEX readout ASICs we performed several measurements including weighting function measurements, multiplexer performance and linearity as well as performance figures of the integrated bias DACs. Performance values together with the pnCCD will be shown. Further tests will also reveal the radiation performance of the ASIC. The main application of these CAMEX chips is the X-ray astronomy project eROSITA (extended Roentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array). This X-ray telescope will be accommodated aboard the new Spectrum Roentgen Gamma satellite. It consists of seven parallel oriented mirror modules (Wolter-I optics) each having its own pnCCD camera in the focus. The pnCCD detector consists of 384×384 imaging pixels with 75μm size plus a frame store area. The satellite launch is planned for the year 2011.The parallel architecture of the pnCCD and CAMEX allows lownoise readout of a full 384 × 384 pixel image within ≪8 ms. Full size prototypes of the detector system are currently under test. Another application are detectors for the evolving X-ray free electron lasers, a new generation of synchrotron light sources. X-ray FEL facilities provide pulses of coherent X-ray light of high brilliance in the energy range of below 0.3 keV up to 24 keV. New prototype pnCCDs for these applications have a size of 512x1024 pixels and are readout with 8 CAMEX chips operating in parallel to archive a frame rate of up to 200Hz.