PROTON DAMAGE IN X-RAY CCDS FOR SPACE APPLICATIONS - GROUND EVALUATION TECHNIQUES AND EFFECTS ON FLIGHT PERFORMANCE

We report measurements of effects of 2.1 and 40 MeV protons on charge coupled device X-ray detectors of a type soon to be launched on several astronomical research satellites. We discuss ground performance characterization techniques and compare our measurements to simple models of the detector damage mechanism. We predict detector performance degradation rates in low-earth orbit. We plan to compare these predictions to early flight data obtained from the solid state imaging spectrometer (SIS) focal plane instrument mounted on the Japan/US X-ray astronomy satellite Asuka launched on February 20, 1993.