The EPIC system onboard the ESA XMM mission

The European Photon Imaging Camera (EPIC) is one of the two main instruments onboard the ESA X-Ray Cornerstone mission XMM. It is devoted to performing imaging and spectroscopy of the X-Ray sky in the domain 0.1-10 keV with a peak sensitivity in 10(5) seconds of 2x10(-15) erg/cm(-2). The X-ray instrumentation is complemented by a radiation monitor which will measure the particle background. The spectral resolution is approximately 140 eV @ 6.4 keV and 60 eV @ 1 keV. The instrumentation consists of three separate Focal Plane Cameras at the focus of the three XMM telescopes, containing CCDs passively cooled to typically -100 degrees via radiators pointing toward the anti-gun direction. The two cameras with the field of view partially occulted by the RGS Grating Boxes will have MOS technology CCDs while the third camera, with full field of view, will be based on p-n technology. The CCDs in the focal plane of the Cameras will cover the entire 30'x30' field of view of the telescope while the pixel size (40x40 mu for the MOS camera and 150x150 mu for the p-n) will be adequate to sample the approximate to 20 '' PSF of the mirrors. In order to cope with a wide range of sky background and source luminosity in the visible/UV band, a filter wheel with six positions has been implemented in each Camera. The sis positions correspond to: open position, closed position, one thin filter (1600 Angstrom of plastic support and 400 Angstrom of Al), one medium filter (1600 Angstrom of plastic support and 800 Angstrom of Al) and one thick filter (similar to 3000 Angstrom of plastic support, similar to 1000 Angstrom of Al and 300 Angstrom of Sn). The final position will be a redundant filter of type still to be decided. A set of radioactive sources in each camera will allow the calibration of the CCDs in any of the operating modes and with any filter wheel position. Vacuum doors and valves operated will allow the operation of the Camera Heads on the ground, in a vacuum chamber and/or in a controlled atmosphere, and will protect the CCDs from contamination until the spacecraft is safely in orbit. The MOS camera will have 7 CCDs, each of 600 x 600 pixels arranged in a hexagonal pattern with one central and sis peripheral. The p-n camera head will have 12 CCDs, each with 200x64 pixels, in a rectangular arrangement, 4 quadrants of 3 CCDs each. The Radiation Monitor is based on two separate detectors to monitor the Low (electrons > 30 keV) and the High (electrons >200 keV and protons >10 MeV) energy particles impinging on the telescope along its orbit.