Solid-state Slit Camera (SSC) on Board MAXI

Abstract

Solid-state Slit Camera (SSC) is an X-ray camera onboard the MAXI mission of the International Space Station. Two sets of SSC sensors view X-ray sky using charge-coupled devices (CCDs) in 0.5--12\,keV band. The total area for the X-ray detection is about 200\,cm$\rm ^2$ which is the largest among the missions of X-ray astronomy. The energy resolution at the CCD temperature of $-$70 \degc is 145\,eV in full width at the half maximum (FWHM) at 5.9\,keV, and the field of view is 1\deg .5 (FWHM) $\times$ 90\deg for each sensor. The SSC could make a whole-sky image with the energy resolution good enough to resolve line emissions, and monitor the whole-sky at the energy band of $<$ 2\,keV for the first time in these decades.