Speaker
Description
The camera head of the Wide Field Imager (WFI), which is to fly on the x-ray telescope ATHENA, is a compact system requiring the integration of three separate temperature regions. One will be the environment temperature of the instruments support structure. The other two temperature environments are governed by the requirements of the detector front end electronics and the detector itself. To remove the heat from the system generated by the electronics of the detector, two dedicated thermal interfaces are provided. To mechanically decouple the detector system from the thermal interfaces the use of thermal straps is necessary. Due to the small space available in the camera head to implement thermal straps, the requirement on the thermal conductance for the connection is very high. The decision has been made to use graphene thermal straps that are wrapped in double-aluminized mylar. To assess their suitability for the project, a qualification campaign is carried out. The thermal straps are tested for their thermal performance, structural stability and particle shedding, thermally cycled and outgassed. The thermal straps will be placed close to the detector system. Hence the particle and outgassing contamination are of particular interest. In the current presentation, the qualification tests are presented.
