Test and Calibration of CUBES: a CubeSat X-ray Detector

Abstract: CUBES is an X-ray detector that will be placed aboard the KTH 3U CubeSat mission, MIST. Its purpose is to detect high energy X-rays as well as to test various components in a space environment. Two CUBES will be placed on the satellite. Each CUBES consists of a printed circuit board (PCB) with three multi pixel photon counters (MPPCs). On top of these, three Germanium Aluminium Gadolinium Garnet (GAGG) scintillators are glued. These GAGG scintillators are of the dimension 1X1X1 cm^3 and are covered with PTFE tape and an opaque potting compound to prevent photons from leaving the scintillator. The MPPCs consists of a large amount of semi conductors operated in Geiger mode. The data is processed by an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC). In order to prepare the CUBES instrument for satellite flight, energy and thermal characterisation have been performed. The energy range was determined to be 40-1200 keV. The detector system shows linear behaviour and operates stably in a temperature range of -20 °C to +30 °C. The preparation of the boards and test results are presented in this thesis.