A MICROALIGNMENT SYSTEM FOR HIGH-PRECISION POSITIONING OF COLLIMATINGPINHOLES

A complete micropositioning unit based on high precision, manually con trolled X-Y-Z translators, related metrology system, and sighting micr oscope is described. It has been specifically developed for the alignm ent of collimating pinholes (5-10 mum diam) on cryogenic x-ray detecto rs, 10-50 mum in size, deposited both on transparent and opaque substr ates. The main characteristics of this flexible and convenient system are the capability to handle a complete test fixture ready for further measurements at cryogenic temperature, coupled with the possibility t o verify the precision attained. Such microalignment equipment will fi nd application in optical/UV/x-ray photon counting experiments, whenev er a highly collimated illumination is required or in any test involvi ng precision positioning of small experimental units onto microdevices or detectors.