Developing NASA’s ComPair-2 Detectors

ComPair-2 will host a gamma-ray tracker with 10 layers, each with 380 silicon detectors, like the engineering test unit shown here. This trial version allows the mission team to test the electronics, measure how well the detectors work together, and develop assembly procedures for each layer.

Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts

Alt text: Scientific hardware on a table

Image description: A square piece of scientific hardware rests on a table on top of a silver cover. The hardware has a white board on the bottom with a silver peg at each corner. Inside the pegs is a black square with orange and green electronic components. The green runs along the bottom of the square and takes up the left corner of the black square. The orange electronic components run in 20 stripes along the black square. The orange is interspersed with black.

Dan Violette, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA Goddard, tips the engineering test unit toward the camera in the ComPair-2 lab. The black carbon fiber frame was fabricated at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and machined and assembled at Goddard.

Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts

Alt text: A man holds a square piece of electronic equipment

Image description: A man in a long-sleeved blue lab coat tips a square piece of electronic equipment toward the camera. The square has a white base, with a slightly smaller black square on top. Orange and black rows cover the black square, with green along the right side and covering the bottom right corner. The square rests on a lab bench covered in silver material.

ComPair-2’s silicon detectors are connected to orange bus bars, which provide electrical connections to the full row of detectors.

Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts

Alt text: Scientific equipment covered orange and green electronics

Image description: Each column of this black grid is interspersed with strips of orange electronics. Each grid segment is composed of a four-by-four subgrid. A green stripe of electronics runs along the bottom, with orange candy cane-shaped connectors for each orange stripe.

Violette examines the ComPair-2 engineering test unit using a magnifying lens in a lab at NASA Goddard.

Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts

Alt text: A man examines electronics with a magnifying glass

Image description: A man in a long-sleeved blue lab coat and white gloves leans over a lab bench. He holds a large magnifying lens in both hands and uses it to examine a square piece of electronic equipment. The square is black with rows of orange stripes. It rests on a silver covering on the lab bench.

A magnifying glass reveals details of ComPair-2’s delicate wiring, which was manufactured robotically.

Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts

Alt text: Close-up of electronics

Image description: Black columns are interspersed with orange on a piece of electrical equipment. Thin, delicate wires extend from the right sides of the orange stripes, like a fringe. At the bottom of is a strip of green and orange. The warped edges of the image reveal the photo was taken using a magnifying glass.

A single ComPair-2 silicon detector chip and its associated electronics wait for testing in a thermal chamber at NASA Goddard.

Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts

Alt text: Electronic equipment in a small chamber

Image description: The camera peers into a small thermal chamber resting on a table. The outside of the chamber is yellow, and the interior is silver. On the floor of the interior rests a small collection of electronics. Wires connect to the various pieces and extend out of a circular opening on the left side.

Inside the thermal chamber, the ComPair-2 detector chip will experience temperature extremes, which will help the mission team assess its performance.

Credit: NASA/Sophia Roberts

Alt text: Electronics inside a small chamber

Image description: A collection of electronics connected to colorful wires rests on the silver floor of a small chamber. The outside of the chamber is yellow.