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V. Waegebaert

Publications and source records attributed to V. Waegebaert.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

ECLAIRs: the SVOM high-energy transient trigger camera

The core instrument of the SVOM Gamma-ray burst mission launched in June 2024 is the 4-150 keV 2-D coded mask camera ECLAIRs responsible for the autonomous trigger and localization of transient events within its field of view. The flight model of ECLAIRs has been built by several French labs (IRAP, CEA, APC) under the supervision of the French Space Agency (CNES), while APC, LUPM and IAP built a suite of data reduction and analysis software. This paper outlines the main science goals of ECLAIRs and describes the different instrument sub-systems and their main characteristics. The paper then discusses the instrument configuration and operation as well as the main in-flight measured performances. Finally, the paper summarizes the science performance of ECLAIRs up to March 31, 2025.

astro-ph.HE

SVOM/ECLAIRs detection plane: main features and performance

The detection plane of the high-energy transient camera ECLAIRs onboard SVOM is made of 200 XRDPIX detection modules, each consisting of a matrix of $8\times 4$ Schottky-type CdTe detectors hybridized with the low-noise and low-consumption ASIC IDeF-X. The 6400 detectors are operated at -20{\deg}C and reverse biased at -300 V, reaching a low energy threshold of 4 keV. The 20 us time resolution readout electronics works in photon counting mode classifying detected events as single or multiple events and measuring the deposited energy in real time. In this paper, we present the detection plane sub-systems and their main features. We also discuss its overall performances as measured both on ground and in-flight, showing compliance with the ECLAIRs science requirements.

astro-ph.IM

Designing large pixelated CdTe detection planes for hard X-ray transients detection

We discuss the need for very large detection planes for the detection of hard X-ray transients in the multi-messenger era that started with the quasi-simultaneous detection of GRB~170817A by \textit{Fermi}/GBM and \textit{INTEGRAL}/SPI on one hand and the gravitational waves event GW 170817, detected by the LVC collaboration, on the other hand. Then, we present a brief survey of current and future instruments and their expected sensitivity, pointing the fact that the gain in the number of GRBs is achieved by future projects thanks to their larger field of view rather than to their larger effective area. Based on our experience with \textit{SVOM}/ECLAIRs, we then address various problems associated with the realization of very large detection planes (\mbox{$\ge 1 \mathrm m^{2}$}), and we demonstrate that CdTe detectors are well suited for this task. We conclude with a discussion of some key parameters that must be taken into account in the realization of instruments based on these detectors. We hope that this paper will motivate the elaboration of detailed proposals of large area wide-field hard X-ray monitors that will be crucially needed in the next decade.

astro-ph.IM