SIXA - Silicon X-ray array

SIXA is one of the focal plane detectors of the SODART telescope on board t he Spectrum-X-Gamma satellite. The detector consists of 19 circular Si(Li) elements, each with an active diameter of 9.2 mm and thickness of 3 mm. A r adiative cooler will be used to bring the detector to the proper operating temperature (110-125 K). Photons can be recorded in the energy range of 0.5 -20 keV with 20a 30 mu s time resolution, 200 eV energy resolution and with an effective area of approximately 750 cm(2) at 6 keV. Unlike conventional CCD's, the detector can observe spectra at high count rates and is sensiti ve at energies up to 20 keV. Several hardware coded observing modes are ava ilable. Simulations, based on the current knowledge of the instrument respo nse, can be found in these proceedings.