The X-ray CCD camera of the MAXI Experiment on the ISS/JEM

MAXI, Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image, is the X-ray observatory on the Japanese experimental module (JEM) Exposed Facility (EF) on the International Space Station (ISS). MAXI is a slit scanning camera which consists of two kinds of X-ray detectors: one is a one-dimensional position-sensitive proportional counter with a total area of ∼ 5000 cm, the Gas Slit Camera (GSC), and the other is an X-ray CCD array with a total area ∼ 200 cm, the Solid-state Slit Camera (SSC). The GSC subtends a field of view with an angular dimension of 1◦× 180◦ while the SSC subtends a field of view with an angular dimension of 1◦ times a little less than 180◦. In the course of one station orbit, MAXI can scan almost the entire sky with a precision of 1◦ and with an X-ray energy range of 0.5−30 keV. We have developed the engineering model of CCD chips and the analogue electronics for the SSC. The energy resolution of EM CCD for Mn Kα has a full-width at half maximum of ≃ 182 eV. Readout noise is ≃ 11 e−rms.