Design and implementation of the UFFO burst alert and trigger telescope

Abstract

The Ultra Fast Flash Observatory pathfinder (UFFO-p) is a telescope system designed for the detection of the prompt optical/UV photons from Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs), and it will be launched onboard the Lomonosov spacecraft in 2012. The UFFO-p consists of two instruments: the UFFO Burst Alert&Trigger telescope (UBAT) for the detection and location of GRBs, and the Slewing Mirror Telescope (SMT) for measurement of the UV/optical afterglow. The UBAT is a coded-mask aperture X-ray camera with a wide field of view (FOV) of 1.8 sr. The detector module consists of the YSO (Yttrium Oxyorthosilicate) scintillator crystal array, a grid of 36 multi-Anode photomultipliers (MAPMTs), and analog and digital readout electronics. When the γ/X-ray photons hit the YSO scintillator crystal array, it produces UV photons by scintillation in proportion to the energy of the incident γ/X-ray photons. The UBAT detects X-ray source of GRB in the 5 ̃ 100 keV energy range, localizes the GRB within 10 arcmin, and sends the SMT this information as well as drift correction in real time. All the process is controlled by a Field Programmable Gates Arrays (FPGA) to reduce the processing time. We are in the final stages of the development and expect to deliver the instrument for the integration with the spacecraft. In what follows we present the design, fabrication and performance test of the UBAT. © 2012 SPIE.