Our development of ultra light-weight X-ray micro pore optics based on MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical System) technologies is described. Using dry etching or X-ray lithography and electroplating, curvilinear sidewalls through a flat wafer are fabricated. Sidewalls vertical to the wafer surface are smoothed by use of high temperature annealing and/or magnetic field assisted finishing to work as X-ray mirrors. The wafer is then deformed to a spherical shape. When two spherical wafers with different radii of curvature are stacked, the combined system will be an approximated Wolter type-I telescope. This method in principle allows high angular resolution and ultra light-weight X-ray micro pore optics. In this paper, performance of a single-stage optic, coating of a heavy metal on sidewalls with atomic layer deposition, and assembly of a Wolter type-I telescope are reported.

Date Published: 17 September 2012
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 8443, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 84430U (17 September 2012);

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8443:
Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray
Tadayuki Takahashi; Stephen S. Murray; Jan-Willem A. den Herder, Editor(s)