May 22, 2007
Mikro Systems (MIKRO) was awarded a 12-month, $99,995 Phase III NASA research contract under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program in May of 2007. The research addresses Micro-Slit Collimators for X-ray and gamma-ray imaging, a continuation of earlier work funded by NASA Phase I and II SBIR awards.
MIKRO has been at the forefront of a number of recent efforts to improve collimator technology for use in future solar X-ray imagers. Based on the pioneering work done by Mike Appleby and others at MIKRO on NASA’s Ramaty High-Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) collimator grids (which set the current standard for grid-based collimators), and with NASA SBIR support, MIKRO continues to evolve advanced collimators using precision stack lamination of fine-featured, etched high-Z metal foils (e.g., tungsten).
Through the SBIR program, MIKRO has developed unique technology for fabricating very fine X-ray modulation grids. These grids are essential components of the Fourier-Transform X-ray imagers included in the planned payloads for the Inner Heliosphere Solar Sentinels and for the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter. MIKRO has demonstrated that it can fabricate precision stack-laminated tungsten foil grids offering the fine pitch and high precision required, and can make them small enough to allow dramatic overall reductions in instrument size and mass.
The 12-month effort is intended to study the effects of enhanced solar heat flux at 0.2 to 0.75 Astronomical Units from the Sun on the precision stack laminated tungsten-foil grids developed under previous SBIR efforts. Increased heat flux will be encountered on future missions, which will utilize smaller instruments and fly closer to the Sun.
MIKRO’s capabilities in producing state-of-the-art collimators for solar and space exploration are unequalled, which places us in a prime position for supplying the collimators for future missions scheduled to begin in 2008.