Dr. Bob Dirks Profile

Dr. Bob Dirks

Systems Engineer at TNO

SPIE Involvement:

Author

Area of Expertise:

instrumentation for astrophysics , systems engineering , applied physics , space instrumentation

Websites:

Company Website | LinkedIn Website

Publications (5)

Proceedings Article | 25 September 2017

First aircraft test results of a compact, low cost hyperspectral imager for earth observation from space

B. T. de Goeij, G. C. Otter, J. M. van Wakeren, J. Veefkind, T. Vlemmix, X. Ge, P. Levelt, B. P. Dirks, P. Toet, L. van der Wal, R. Jansen

Proc. SPIE. 10562, International Conference on Space Optics — ICSO 2016

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Proceedings Article | 15 July 2010

Low-noise transition edge sensor (TES) for SAFARI instrument on SPICA

P. Khosropanah, B. Dirks, M. Parra-Borderías, M. Ridder, R. Hijmering, J. van der Kuur, L. Gottardi, M. Bruijn, M. Popescu, J. R. Gao, H. Hoevers

Proc. SPIE. 7741, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy V

KEYWORDS: Staring arrays, Telescopes, Astronomy, Data modeling, Sensors, Spectroscopy, Niobium, Tantalum, Temperature metrology, Current controlled current source

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Transition edge sensor (TES) is the selected detector for the SAFARI FIR imaging spectrometer (focal plane arrays covering a wavelength range from 30 to 210 μm) on the Japanese SPICA telescope. Since the telescope is cooled to <7 K, the instrument sensitivity is limited by the detector noise. Therefore among all the requirements, a crucial one is the sensitivity, which should reach an NEP (Noise Equivalent Power) as low as 3E-19 W/Hz^0.5 for a base temperature of >50 mK. Also the time constant should be below 8 ms. We fabricated and characterized low thermal conductance transition edge sensors (TES) for SAFARI instrument on SPICA. The device is based on a superconducting Ti/Au bilayer deposited on suspended SiN membrane. The critical temperature of the device is 155 mK. The low thermal conductance is realized by using narrow SiN ring-like supporting structures. All measurements were performed having the device in a light-tight box, which to a great extent eliminates the loading of the background radiation. We measured the current-voltage (IV) characteristics of the device in different bath temperatures and determine the thermal conductance (G) to be equal to 1.66 pW/K. This value corresponds to a noise equivalent power (NEP) of 1E-18 W/√Hz. The current noise and complex impedance is also measured at different bias points at 25 mK bath temperature. The measured electrical (dark) NEP is 2E-18 W/√Hz, which is about a factor of 2 higher than what we expect from the thermal conductance that comes out of the IV curves. Despite using a light-tight box, the photon noise might still be the source of this excess noise. We also measured the complex impedance of the same device at several bias points. Fitting a simple first order thermal-electrical model to the measured data, we find an effective time constant of about 65 μs and a thermal capacity of 3-4 fJ/K in the middle of the transition

Proceedings Article | 15 July 2008

EURECA: a European-Japanese microcalorimeter array

Piet de Korte, Jose Anquita, Xavier Barcons, Paolo Bastia, Joern Beyer, Fernando Briones, Marcel Bruijn, Javier Bussons, Augustin Camón, F. Carrera, Maria Teresa Ceballos, Luca Colasanti, Bob Dirks, Dietmar Drung, Lourdes Fabrega, Flavio Gatti, Raquel Gonzalez-Arrabal, Luciano Gottardi, Wojtek Hajdas, Panu Helistö, Jan-Willem den Herder, Henk Hoevers, Yoshitaka Ishisaki, Mikko Kiviranta, Jan van der Kuur, Claudio Macculi, Aliko Mchedlishvili, Kazu Mitsuda, Stéphane Paltani, Maria Parra-Borderías, Luigi Piro, Reiner Rohlfs, Javier Sese, Yoh Takei, Guido Torrioli, Noriko Yamasaki

Proc. SPIE. 7011, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2008: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray

KEYWORDS: Electronics, Sensors, Spectroscopy, X-rays, Amplifiers, Detector arrays, Head, Feedback loops, X-ray astronomy, Fused deposition modeling

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Proceedings Article | 15 June 2006

The focal plane of the Simbol-X space mission

B. P. F. Dirks, P. Ferrando, U. Briel, O. Gevin, E. Kendziorra, P. Laurent, O. Limousin, F. Lugiez, J. Martignac, M. Authier, C. Chapron, P. Lechner, G. Pareschi, Y. Rio, J.P. Roques, P. Salin, L. Strüder

Proc. SPIE. 6276, High Energy, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy II

KEYWORDS: Mirrors, Electronics, Cameras, Sensors, Satellites, Crystals, X-rays, Silicon, Space operations, Active sensors

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Proceedings Article | 29 September 2004

3D modeling of Cd(Zn)Te detectors for the Simbol-X space mission

Bob Dirks, Olivier Limousin, Philippe Ferrando, Remi Chipaux

Proc. SPIE. 5501, High-Energy Detectors in Astronomy

KEYWORDS: MATLAB, Sensors, Satellites, Electrodes, X-rays, Electrons, 3D modeling, Monte Carlo methods, Space operations, X-ray detectors

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