A Few Selected Research Topics of Research Center of MEMS Space Telescope

Astronomy and Astrophysics in Korea
A Few Selected Research Topics of

Research Center of MEMS Space Telescope
J. A. Jeon1,2, J. Y. Jin1,3, A. R. Jung1,2, S. M. Jeong1,2, J. E. Kim1,2, M. Kim1,3, Y. K. Kim3,
C.-H. Lee1,4, H. Y. Lee1,2, J. Lee1,2, G. W. Na1,2, J. W. Nam1,2, S. Nam1,2, I. H. Park*,1,2,5,
J. H. Park1,2, Y.-S. Park6, J. E. Suh1,2, B. W. Yoo1,3, H. J. Yu1,6
B. A. Khrenov7, G. K. Garipov7, M. Panasyuk7, P. Klimov7 (The MTEL Collaboration)
B. Grossan8, H. Lim5, E. V. Linder2,5,8, G. F. Smoot2,5,8 (The UFFO Collaboration)
1
Research Center for MEMS Space Telescope (RCMST), Ewha Womans University, Seoul 120-750, Korea
Department of Physics, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 120-750, Korea
School
of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-600, Korea
4
Department of Physics, Pusan National University, Pusan 609-735, Korea
5
Institute for Early Universe (IEU), Ewha Womans University, Seoul 120-750, Korea
6
School of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea
7
D.V.
Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP), Moscow State University, Moscow 119992, Russia
8
Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics (BCCP), University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
*corresponding author: ipark@ewha.ac.kr
2
3
Research Center of MEMS Space Telescope (RCMST) was established at Ewha

Womans University, Seoul, in Apr. 2006
with support from Creative Research
Initiatives program of Korean Ministry
of Education, Science and Technology
and Korean Science and Engineering
Foundation. The main research topic of
RCMST is astrophysics which includes
high energy and ultra-high energy cosmic-ray, gamma ray bursts, and leading
edge technologies relevant for advanced

space experiments. We have been carrying out our own projects. One is MTEL
(MEMS Telescope for Extreme Lightning)
to prove the idea of a proposed MEMS
based space telescope and study transient
luminous events like sprites, blue jets
and elves in the upper atmosphere. The
payload will be in 800 km orbit by Russian Tatiana-2 micro-satellite in Aug. 31,
2009. The other project under way with
Institute of Early Universe at Ewha and

Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics is UFFO (Ultra Fast Flash Observatory) for observation of prompt photons
from Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) which
includes a key instrument, ultra fast slewing mirror telescope. Both MTEL and
UFFO require a new type of telescope
utilizing high-end technology in MEMS
(Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) micromirrors. We also participate in a few
international collaborations by making
a significant contribution on hardware
and analysis, to name a few, the CREAM
balloon-borne cosmic-ray experiment
and the JEM-EUSO ultra-high energy
cosmic ray experiment. In the following,
we describe a few selected research topics: MTEL, UFFO, MEMS micormirrors,
CREAM and JEM-EUSO.
1. MTEL: A NEW TYPE OF SPACE

TELESCOPE FOR OBSERVATION OF TERRESTRIAL
TRANSIENT LIGHTS INCLUDING EXTREME LIGHTNING IN
THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE
Members of Research Center of MEMS Space Telescope.
32
AAPPS Bulletin August 2009, Vol. 19, No. 4
1.1. Introduction
Extreme lightning in the upper atmosphere called Transient Luminous Events
(TLEs) are considered as the newly
A Few Selected Research Topics of Research Center of MEMS Space Telescope
found component in the global electrical

and chemical aspects of Earth and its
atmosphere [1, 2]. The observation of
space-time development of TLEs with
high lateral resolution and fast time resolution, especially in the nadir direction,
will provide a clue for understanding
the formation mechanism of TLEs, and
therefore their origin.
So far the space-time development of
TLEs has been mainly observed using
CCD cameras [3]. The CCD cameras,
however, have a typical time resolution of
tens of msec. We have proposed a new type
of space telescope equipped with a fast
tilting MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical
Systems) micromirror array and MAPMT
(multi-anode photomultiplier tube) photodetectors [4, 5]. The rapid tilting of the
MEMS micromirror array and the fast
response of the photo detectors to lights
make the telescope capable of observing
the space-time development of TLEs with
a time resolution of 1,000 times better than
CCD cameras.
The concept of the telescope is shown
in Fig. 1. The trigger mirror (a conventional fixed plane mirror) and a 64-channel
MAPMT (Multi-anode Photomultiplier
Tube) positioned close to it forms a trigger camera. The trigger camera monitors
a wide field of view due to its short focal length. The zoom mirror (a MEMS
micromirror array) and another MAPMT
photo-detector positioned far from it
forms a zoom-in camera. The zoom-in
camera can zoom an image due to its long
focal length. When the trigger camera
detects and triggers an event of interest,
it determines the position of the event
and provides the position to the zoom-in
camera. Then the zoom-in camera tracks
the event and zooms into the event, which
leads to the observation of the space-time
development of TLEs with higher lateral
resolution.
in Fig. 2, consists of a 3 mm aperture

T1 is pin-hole like camera which looks
MEMS telescope, a spectrometer and down the earth with the area of 160 km
a CCD camera. These three devices are 160 km with a resolution of 20 km 20
complementary to each other for the km. It provides T2 and S3 a fast trigger
observation of the space-time development of terrestrial transient lights such
as TLEs. The prototype has successfully
passed a series of the space qualification
tests. The tests include electromagnetic
compatibility test, shock and vibration
test, and thermal vacuum test, humidity
test, and offgassing test, etc. We compare
the performance of the prototype before
and after the space qualification tests. We
have not observed any degradation in the
performance of the instrument.
The prototype has been delivered to the
International Space Station (ISS) in FebruFig. 1: Concept of the space telescope equipped
ary 2008 and it has successfully observed with a MEMS micromirror array.
the transient lights during the seven days
mission of the first Korean Astronaut in
April 2008. Fig. 3 shows the prototype
installed at the UV-transparent earthviewing observation window of the ISS
by So-Yeon Yi. An example of the TLE
candidates observed at the ISS is shown
in Fig. 4. It displays 12 shots of the TLE
candidates space-time development. The
smaller shot number, the earlier shot. The
time interval between shots is 1 msec. In
each shot, the height of color-coded columns indicates the light intensity of the
TLE candidate over the 8 8 array of the
photo-sensor pixels.
The importance of the prototype, even
though its mission period is merely seven Fig. 2: The prototype of the small space teledays, is its successful operation with scope.
MEMS micromirrors in space environment, which provides us with space-flight
heritage to the future space instruments
produced with our technology.
1.3. Fabrication of the Small Space Telescope and its Performance

We have realized the concept of the new
telescope into a small space telescope
called MTEL (MEMS Telescope for Ex1.2. Prototype of the Small Space Tele- treme Lightning). MTEL consists of three
scope
subcomponents: Trigger camera (T1),
Fig. 3: The prototype of the small space
We have fabricated a prototype of the Zoom-in camera (T2), and Spectropho- telescope installed at the ISS by the Korean
small telescope. The prototype, as shown tometer (S3).
astronaut.
AAPPS Bulletin August 2009, Vol. 19, No. 4 33
derived from the information on 64-channel UV sensitive MAPMT. T2 consists

of 64 cell micromirror array to make a
zoom-in of TLE event trigged by T1. The
resolution of T2 is 5 km 5 km. The same
UV sensitive MAPMT is used. S3 has 8
different filters in front of a wide wavelength sensitive (300-800 nm) 64-channel
MAPMT. The specification of T1 and T2
is shown in the Table 1.
Fig. 4: Space-time development of a TLE candidate observed at the

ISS by the prototype telescope.
The weight of MTEL is 4.5 kg and its

overall dimension is 520 mm (length)
144.5 mm (width) 142 mm (height).
Fig. 5 shows the structural design of
MTEL (top) with its components, and
the telescope part (middle) and electronics part (bottom) of the fabricated flight
model.
The unique feature of MTEL, that is,
wide field view monitoring, fast tracking and zoom-in capability, has been
demonstrated in the laboratory after the
fabrication of MTEL [6]. The test results
are shown in Fig. 6. The height denotes the
digitized light intensity detected by each
pixel. Fig. 6(a) represents the recorded
image from the trigger mirror at the start
of the event. Fig. 6(b) shows the images
after the zoom mirror points to the source
and zooms into the center of the source.
Fig. 6(c) shows the tracking of the light
Fig. 5: Structural design of MTEL (top), and telescope part (middle) and
electronics part (bottom) of the fabricated flight model.
34
Fig. 6: Performance of MTEL demonstrating the feature of

wide field of view surveillance, zoom-in and tracking.
source by the zoom mirror, when the location of the light source is changed.
1.4. MTEL Electronics
The electronics of MTEL includes analog
and digital electronics, and readout, trigger
and control logic. Fig. 7 shows the architectural overview of MTEL electronics.
The area shaded in blue in Fig. 7 shows
all logic programs realized within a FPGA
chip, whereas BI represents an instrument outside of MTEL that interfaces all
scientific instruments including MTEL to
the on-board computer of the Tatiana-2
satellite. The logic programs control all
parts of the telescope instrument, and issue trigger upon events of interest, readout
and store the data, and monitor the status
of the instrument.
Major functional units of the MTEL
logic are (1) trigger processing unit: TDL
(Trigger Decision Logic), (2) instrument
control units: SCL (System Control
Logic), GCL (Gain Control Logic),
MCL (Micromirror Control Logic), HKC
(Housekeeping Control), and (3) data
processing units: FCL (FIFO Control
Logic), RSG (Run Summary Generator), BII (BI Interface). The terminology of each logic block in Fig. 7 is self
explanatory. However GCL deserves an
extra explanation because it provides the
opportunity of observing very energetic
TLEs. It adjusts constantly the high voltage, therefore gain, of the MAPMT in
such a way that the MAPMT output remains the same regardless of the amount
of background lights. On the activation
of GCL, the high voltage of the MAPMT
will be reduced during the day compared
to the voltage during the night. When the
background light increases, GCL protects
the MAPMT from the background light
and also increases the dynamic range of
the MAPMT automatically so that the
MTEL can observe very energetic TLEs
without the saturation in the MAPMT
output.
1.5. Payload
The Tatiana-2 satellite and its on-board
scientific instruments including MTEL
Fig. 7: Architectural overview of readout, trigger and control of MTEL.

Table 1: Specifications of MTEL.
Mirror
Trigger Zoom
Focal length (cm)
Field of view (degree)
4.53
18.10
160
40
22.62
Diameter of watching area (km)

Diameter of coverage area (km)
160
Watching area per pixel (km )
20
5.72
200
2
Table 2: Specifications of Tatiana-2 and MTEL.
Tatiana-2
Orbit
Sun Synchronous Orbit
Altitude
830-850 km
Mission Life Time

Weight
Data Telemetry
Control Telemetry
1-3 years
120 kg
1.7 GHz (500 kbits/s)

145 kHz (1.2 kbits/s)
MTEL
Volume
150(d) 144.5(w) 120(h) mm
Power Consumption
6W
Weight
Data Rate
4.5 kg
Maximum 400 Mbits/day
Table 3: Operation Cycle of MTEL.
time
Night
Dawn/Dusk
Day
Ave
Total
power (W) hour data request freq. (min.) data size (Mbits)
6.5
10
270
5.5
10
68
6
6
24
54
392
are shown in Fig. 8 and the major specifications of the satellite and MTEL are
listed in Table 2. Each orbit of the satellite consists of night, dawn, day and dusk
periods as shown in Fig. 9. TLEs have
been observed at night so far, and MTEL
will also observe them mostly during
the night. However MTEL is capable of
observing TLEs, presumably very energetic ones, at dawn and dusk, and even
in the daytime, because of its automated
MAPMT gain control. Table 3 shows the
operation cycle during the mission in
orbit, which meets the specifications for
MTEL especially in the areas of power
consumption and data size, and also to
have opportunities of observing very
energetic TLEs.
electromagnetic compatibility, outgassing,

etc. The payload of the MTEL telescope
was delivered to the Russian Space Agency,
VNIIEM in October, 2008 after the space
qualification tests. It has been integrated
to the Tatiana-2 satellite there as shown in
Fig. 10. The payload is waiting for launch
in August 31, 2009.
1.6. Conclusion
We have designed and fabricated the
MEMS space telescope, equipped with a
3 mm 3 mm MEMS micromirror array.
The principle of the telescope, the wide
field of view monitoring, zoom-in on an
object of interest, and tracking of the fast
moving object, has been demonstrated
in the laboratory. The telescope has successfully finished all space qualification
The payload of the MTEL telescope has tests and has been integrated into the
successfully completed space qualification Russian microsatellite Tatiana-2. After
tests: shock/vibration, thermal, vacuum, launch this summer, it will observe ter-
Fig. 8: Schematic view of Tatiana-2 satellite and MTEL.
restrial transient lights including TLEs

in space.
2. UFFO: ULTRA FAST FLASH

OBSERVATORY TO OBSERVE
T H E P R O M P T P H O TO N S
FROM GAMMA RAY BURSTS
Only a handful of short/hard-type gammaray bursts (GRBs) have been detected in
2
the UV-optical bands within the first 10
seconds after the burst trigger. The fastest
space platform GRB optical-UV follow-up
observatory, SWIFT, cannot, except in unlikely events, respond to a short-hard GRB
in less than 96 seconds, and the rise phase
of this type of GRB, and other rapid-rising GRBs, has not been observed. We, the
UFFO collaboration, therefore, propose a
new microsatellite instrument, the UFFO
(Ultra Fast Flash Observatory), equipped
with a Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems
(MEMS) based UV-optical telescope
which responds down to ~ 0.001 seconds
2
to GRB positions to observe the first 10
seconds of these events, a new frontier in
GRB and transient studies.
2.1. Introduction
GRBs are the most luminous explosions
in the universe, emitting the highest
energy photons, and should be seen to
the highest redshift of any object in the
universe. These properties provide great
leverage in time (the evolution of stars
and stellar populations from redshifts
z = 0-15, or over 98% of the age of the
universe), in wavelength (the burst and
afterglow span some 9 orders of magni-
Fig. 9: Night, dawn, day and dusk in an

orbit.
Fig. 10: Integration of MTEL to Tatiana-2 satellite.
36
tude in photon energy, for highly synoptic

observations), and in information (allowing multi-messenger astrophysics where
the explosion can be observed in photons,
neutrinos, and gravitational waves).
GRB afterglow observations in various
frequencies from X-rays to radio provide
important clues to understanding the GRB
mechanism and progenitor characteristics.
Numerous afterglow observations have
been made in optical and ultraviolet. A
prime example is the SWIFT spacecraft,
which can detect simultaneously gamma
ray, X-ray, ultraviolet, and optical signals
[7, 8, 9]. The position calculated by SWIFT
is also broadcasted over the internet via the
gamma-ray coordinate network or GCN.
Although the response of some instruments
is extremely rapid, e.g. 25 sec for ROTSEIII, the sensitivity is poor compared to
that of the SWIFT UV/Optical Telescope
(UVOT). The slower slew times of larger
terrestrial telescopes makes them uncompetitive for the sub-1,000 sec. regime.
The first few seconds of afterglow following the prompt gamma ray emission
have been measured in only the handful of
GRBs preceded by precursor flashes for
last 10 years [10, 11]. Such a low statistics
(approximately once every two years for
all observatories combined) and the relatively poor data quality in optical range,
limit the usefulness of these events.
We propose a MEMS based UV/Optical
telescope to respond within 0.001 second
to GRB positions to observe the first 100
seconds of these events, a new frontier in
GRB and transient space phenomena. The
telescope with fastest ever millisecond
slew speed both for x- and y-directions
at a time makes for an ideal replacement
for physically slewing a large optical
instrument for rapid measurements. Resembling mirror segments mounted on
two-axis gimbals, MEMS micromirrors
are fabricated in arrays using advanced
silicon and integrated circuit technologies. Only voltages are applied to tiny
electric actuators for rapid pointing to
observe burst afterglows down to 0.001
The micromirrors in the reflector are

second. Such an extremely lightweight,
low power observatory fits well to the rotated by the fast actuating structure
platform of a microsatellite, opening a underneath driven by the control electronics. The tilting angle of the mirror
new time domain.
in the making is up to 30, resulting in
UFFO uniquely complements SWIFT a very wide FOV of the UFFO to 60
by observing the early part of GRB after- 60. The photon detection in the focal
glow, which provides information crucial plane is made using fast photon counting
to understanding the link between prompt devices that record arrival time of indigamma ray emission and the afterglow. vidual photons, which allows the precise
This allows tests of the hypothesis that so measurement of early part of light curve
called dark GRBs, which comprise about without the aberration inherent in large
half of long GRBs, might be the ones optical systems.
in which the afterglow is very brief and
Due to the diffraction limit resulting
dies out before current instruments can
be triggered [12, 13]. The same prompt from the segmented mirror reflector, SMT
measurement capability will also allow provides arc minute positioning of sourcheretofore impossible measurements to es, so the imaging resolution is poorer than
be made of the UV and visible wavelength that of the SWIFT UVOT. The position
signals arriving in the first few seconds resolution could be improved close to that
following the X-ray signal heralding many of SWIFT by slewing the entire plane of
the micromirror arrays with a motor while
other violent cosmic phenomena.
rotating the micromirrors back to the ini2.2. Idea of UFFO with Slewing Mirror tial position at the same speed. Therefore,
very early photons in the order of milliTelescope
The key idea of the UFFO is very fast seconds after X-ray trigger are collected
pointing of the narrow-FOV UV/optical through a fast slewing of the micromirror
telescope using the special optics with arrays, and a high resolution imaging of
MEMS mirrors. Fig. 11 is the conceptual the source is also obtained via slewing of
drawing of the UFFO Slewing Mirror the plane which takes a second.
Telescope (SMT). The parallel rays from
We fabricated a small prototype of 3
GRB afterglows are reflected by a compound plane mirror composed of MEMS mm caliber telescope to demonstrate the
micromirror arrays to be directed always idea of MEMS slewing mirror [5, 6] and
on axis to subsequent fixed optics which the space qualification of micromirrors
is a modified Ritchey-Chretien telescope. [14]. It was delivered to the International
The net effect is to steer the UV/optical Space Station in April 2008, and the
instrument beam, instead of moving the other improved one to the 800 km orbit
with Tatiana-2 Russian satellite for at
telescope or the satellite itself.
Fig. 11: Operation principle of the UFFO SMT (Slewing Mirror Telescope).
least one year mission in August 2009,

both for nadir observation of transient
luminous events occurring in the upper
atmosphere.
2.3. The UFFO Instrument
As shown in Fig. 12, The UFFO has
four co-aligned instruments for finding ultra-fast flashes and transients like
GRB afterglow: UV/Optical Slewing
Mirror Telescope (SMT), X-ray Trigger
Detector (XTD), fixed wide field of view
UV/Optical Trigger Assistant Telescope
(UTAT), and LSO based simple gamma
ray monitor.
Fig. 12: The UFFO instrument.
The XTD consists of the coded mask

and CdZnTe pixels. Trigger processing
will be simpler and an order of magnitude
faster than SWIFT using FPGA/MPU. The
SMT, which can slew within a millisecond
after a XTD or UTAT trigger, is a new
instrument of its kind. The UFFO will provide not only detailed multi-wavelength
light curves for the afterglow duration,
but also determine red shifts with filters
and/or grism for most of the bursts that it
detects, thereby allowing determination
of the burst distances and absolute brightness. Overall mass, power consumption
and physical size are expected to be 120
3
kg, 200 Watts, and 60 70 90 cm ,
respectively.
2.4. Conclusion
The Ultra Fast Flash Observatory (UFFO)
is proposed to study ultra fast flashes
in space such as prompt photons from
GRB. One of the key instruments of
the UFFO is Slewing Mirror Telescope
(SMT) which is a new telescope with
MEMS technology. It allows fastest ever
slewing within a millisecond. The first
hundred seconds after the X-ray detector
is triggered offer a unique observational
opportunity that has so far rarely been
utilized. We present a preliminary design
and expected performance of UFFO.
Fig. 13: A schematic view of the micromirror for two-axis rotation.
cal communications, display systems,

etc. Lately, optical MEMS technology
has received attention because of its applicability to the next generation space
telescopes, such as the James Webb Space
Telescope. The most common example
of optical MEMS device is micromirror,
which has a typical size of hundreds of
micrometers. It has rapid tilting speed, low
power consumption and high reliability in
comparison to conventional bulky optical
components. These advantages lower the
launch cost, and ease the maintenance of
an optical system operating in space.
its usage in space [14]. The improvement

and development for the UFFO application
are in progress.
3.2. Design
The micromirror for the MEMS telescope
is designed to be driven by two-axis
electrostatic vertical comb actuators that
allow continuous changes to the viewing angle of the mirror plate biaxially.
Single-crystalline silicon has been selected as the structural material for the
micromirror because of properties such
as a negligible residual stress, high yield
strength, high temperature resistance, and
We designed and fabricated two-axis a flat surface.
3. MEMS MICROMIRRORS
rotational micromirror arrays with an
3.1. Introduction
A micromirror has a three-layered strucNumerous types of optical MEMS tech- angle tilt in an analog way for the MTEL
nologies have been developed for opti- [15]. We also demonstrated successfully ture: a mirror plate, an actuator with top
38
and bottom comb electrodes, and a substrate with electrical lines. Fig. 13 shows
a schematic view of the micromirror. It has
two rotational axes and the moving part of
the actuator has a gimbal-like frame. The
vertical comb structures are fabricated
on a Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) wafer to
construct the actuation part of the mirror.
The bottom silicon layer of the SOI wafer
is patterned to form the comb electrodes
to which the actuation voltage is applied,
and the top silicon layer is used as the
ground electrode.
of the mirror are shown in Fig. 15.

The maximum measured tilting angle
was 7.5 for voltages of 45 V. The response time of the mirror was defined
as the settling time for oscillations to
reach a value of less than 10% of the
final value. A period of about 3 ms was
needed for the rotation to be stabilized,
respectively. A torsion resonance appeared at a frequency of about 2 kHz. The
mirror was fast enough to track a typical
transient event, which usually lasts for a
period of tens of milliseconds.
An aluminum layer of 800- thickness

is used as a reflective material on the
micromirror. The mirror reflectivity was
measured before and after being exposed
to outgassing in a thermal vacuum chamber for 24 hours, as shown in Fig. 16. The
-3
chamber was depressurized down to 10
Torr and the temperature was set to 60 C,
which are the standard conditions required
for outgassing tests of Russian micro-satellites. After exposure to the outgassing, the
mirrors reflectivity degraded by less than
2%, which is tolerable in space applications.
A DC bias applied to the comb electrodes attached to the frame provides the
electrical torque to tilt the frame, while
the DC bias at the comb electrodes located
inside the frame generates the torque to tilt
the inner plate. Two orthogonal pairs of
springs allow the mirror plate to be tilted
independently in two orthogonal directions. By combining rotations along the
two axes, the tilt angle of the micromirror
can be controlled in any direction. This is
done in response to the data from the trigger system, which determines the direction
of the event of interest.
3.4. Test of Micromirrors for Space

Environment
Micromirrors in space operate in an extremely high vacuum. Outgassing from
any materials such as printed circuit
boards, cables and adhesives will result
in the loss of mirror reflectivity. In addition, the thermal requirements are quite
severe, with repetitive cycles of low and
high temperature excursions during a
mission. Temperature excursions can
accelerate the outgassing from materials that can contaminate the surface of
the mirror.
The reliability of the micromirror was

measured by actuating the micromirror
repeatedly to a tilting angle of 3.1 at
8
atmospheric environments. Even after 10
cycles of repeated actuation, there was no
change in the resonant frequency and no
degradation in the static responses, which
means that the micromirror has a lifetime
of over 100 million actuation cycles.
3.3. Fabrication of Micromirrors and

Prototype Telescope
A small prototype telescope using the
proposed micromirror array with the
2
size of 3 3 mm was delivered to the
International Space Station in April 2008
[14]. The improved one will be carried
into orbit by a Russian microsatellite,
Tatiana-2, in August 31, 2009 [5, 6]. The
primary aim of the mission is to observe
Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) in the
upper atmosphere over a mission duration
of at least one year.
The micromirror array applied to
these prototype telescopes consists of
8 8 small square reflector pixels, of
which the size is 340 m 340 m
[6, 15]. The images of a fabricated
micromirror array and actuator taken
using a Scanning Electron Microscope
(SEM) are shown in Fig. 14. The tilting
angles of the micromirror with respect
to the applied voltage and step response
Shock and vibration tests were performed to simulate a spacecraft launch

and operation in orbit. Shock and vibration
robustness of the micromirror was tested
Fig. 14: SEM images of the fabricated micromirror: (left) micromirror array,
(right) the comb actuator with the mirror plate removed.
Fig. 15: Measured characteristics of the micromirror: (left) static angular tilt
response, (right) step responses of the micromirror.
3.5. Requirements for the Application

to UFFO
The large aperture of UFFO and thus
a large size of the MEMS reflector is
rather challenging in technological
point of view. A micromirror rotatable
in any directions is required as well,
because it has to align the image with
the center of the focal plane. The size of
the micromirror array is 30 cm 30 cm,
which becomes the aperture of the UFFO
SMT. The array will be composed of
300 300 reflector pixels, each 1mm
Fig. 16: Micromirror reflectivity before and after outgassing
test.
1mm. The mechanical tilting angle
should be over 15 to cover the FOV of
the UFFO and the uncertainty of tilting
angle should be managed in the range of
less than a pixel FOV of the SMT focal
plane detector, namely less than 0.02.
Moreover, adjacent reflector segments
should be located close to each other
to obtain the fill-factor more than 90 %
in order to collect photons as much as
possible. It is important that the mirror
should rotate its viewing angle rapidly
enough to observe an early UV/optical
afterglow immediately after the trigger,
Fig. 17: Comparison of the MEMS mirror performance at ground laboratory
so as not to miss a significant part of the
and at ISS.
afterglow under investigation. The speed
of the tilting micromirror in the UFFO is
in three mutually perpendicular directions 2008), toward the tail end of the mission designed to be stabilized within several
based on a Russian satellite test procedure. Expedition 16. The array had successfully milliseconds.
The qualification level random vibration functioned in the ISS, and its performance
We have designed the micromirrors
tests ranged from 20 to 2,000 Hz. A 40 g in the ISS has been reported [14]. Fig. 17
shock at the orbital stage was the maxi- compares the performance of the mirror meeting the requirement above, and foremum operational g-load used to qualify array in the ground laboratory and in the see the first production for the UFFO in
the test. After the shock and vibration tests ISS. The x-axis of Fig. 17 refers to time the fourth quarter of 2009.
were complete, no damage was observed, and the y-axis shows the light intensity
and the resonance frequency of the micro- collected at a photon sensor. The high 4. CREAM: DIRECT MEASUREMENT OF HIGH-ENERGY
mirror had not changed. The humidity, intensity level represents the toggle-on
COSMIC RAYS WITH SILIelectrostatic charging effects, outgassing state of the mirror array in which the
CON DETECTOR
and stiction issues associated with space light originating from a UV LED source
environments were also tested.
is reflected onto the photon sensor by the The research of cosmic rays began a
micromirrors. The low intensity level hundred years ago when the technolHaving characterized our MEMS mi- represents the toggle-off state of the mirror ogy for single particle detection became
cromirrors under unique environments array so that no light is reflected onto the available. Though many discoveries and
for operation in the ISS and the earths sensor. No degradation in the performance progresses have been made since then
orbit, we measured for the first time the was observed at the ISS. The successful in this field, the major problem of the
performance of the MEMS micromirror operation of the micromirrors in the ISS research still remains unanswered. The
array in the ISS. The micromirror array proved the validity and applicability of question is about the origin of highwas kept in nominal eight-hour operation the ground environment test procedure energy cosmic rays. The acceleration
every day in the ISS, and the measure- for space qualification of a wide range of mechanism of high-energy cosmic rays
15
with its energy around and below 10 eV
ment lasted for seven days (April 1117, MEMS micromirrors to come.
40
has been modeled using shock waves in ger was set to be nearly 100% in the
The SCD has been successfully opersupernova explosions in our galaxy while efficiency for showers of protons above ated in all flights for the measurements
12
the origin of higher energy cosmic rays is 3 10 eV[18].
of the precise cosmic-ray composition
completely unknown.
and provided excellent particle charge
Two sets of the SCD were constructed resolution [19]. Several papers based on
Direct measurements with instruments by our group. Fig. 19 shows the second SCD are currently under submission. In
on stratospheric balloons or in space have SCD which has been flown from the particular, a recent result of the analysis
provided most of crucial information second CREAM flights. The SCD was shows deviation of energy spectrum from
available today on their elemental com- assembled with silicon sensors. A sen- the simple power law for most of elements
position and energy spectra. The highest sor is a 4 4 array of DC-coupled PIN measured, which is very interesting, speenergy region of the measurement has diode pixels with the total active area cially concerning recent results of electron
2
been covered by the CREAM (Cosmic of 21 16 mm which is fabricated excess observed in the ATIC and FERMI
Ray Energetics And Mass) experiment using 380 um thick wafer. The SCD missions [20].
which is a balloon borne mission at Ant- used during the first flight (December
arctica [16]. The experiment was designed 2004 - January 2005) was a single layer
to measure high-energy cosmic nuclei in device, then upgraded to a dual layer
2
15
the energy range between 10 and 10 device for the second flight (December
eV at the top of atmosphere. It has been 2005 - January 2006), covering the total
2
launched four times from December 2004. sensitive area of 779 795 mm . Flight
A total duration of 119 days using the long- data demonstrated that adding a second
duration balloons was achieved during the layer improved SCD performance, showflights [17].
ing excellent particle charge resolution.
With a total dissipation of 136 W for
The payload consists of redundant the dual layer system, special care was
instruments for energy and charge mea- needed in designing thermal paths to
surement of cosmic rays as shown in keep the detector temperature within its
Fig. 18. The major instrument for the operational range. As a consequence,
energy measurement is the calorimeter flight temperatures of the SCD, even at
with tungsten-scintillating fiber layers. diurnal maximum were kept below 38
The particle charges are measured by the degree C. The SCD mechanical structure
Silicon Detector (SCD: Silicon Charge was designed to minimize the possibility
Detector). The detector configuration of damage to the sensors and electronics
includes, from the top, a Timing Charge from the impacts of parachute deployDetector (TCD) of segmented plastic ment and landing. The detector has been
scintillators, a Cerenkov detector (CD), recovered successfully and refurbished Fig. 18: Detector Configuration of CREAM
the SCD, and a tungsten/scintillating for the next flights.
payload.
fiber sampling calorimeter with a depth
of 20 radiation lengths installed on carbon targets. There is also a single layer
detector, S3, between the target and the
calorimeter. The coincidence signals
from TCD and S3 are used for the trigger
to take high statistics low energy data.
The fast readout electronics of the TCD
provides an additional charge measurement by rejecting delayed signals from
back-scattered particles in the interaction of incoming cosmic rays with the
calorimeter. The trigger for high energy
cosmic rays is generated by requiring the
presence of hits in at least 6 consecutive
calorimeter layers out of the total 20
layers. The energy threshold of the trigFig. 19: SCD-II with the cover opened.
5. JEM-EUSO: TRIGGERING
SPACE TELESCOPE WITH
FA I N T F L U O R E S C E N C E
LIGHT FROM HIGHEST ENERGY COSMIC RAYS
In the research of the origin and propagation of ultra high-energy cosmic rays, high
statistics measurement of the extensive air
shower events is crucial. The measurement from the space provides a promising
condition as the whole earth atmosphere
is used as a detector.
As a new type of space observatory

being constructed with an international
collaboration, JEM-EUSO (Extreme Universe Space Observatory on Japanese Experiment Module) has been selected as the
candidate mission of the second utilization
of JEM at the International Space Station
(ISS) to measure the flux, angle, identification, and energy of extremely high-energy
cosmic rays as shown in Fig. 20 [21]. It is
a wide field-of-view ( 30) telescope that
orbits around the earth every ~ 90 minutes
at the altitude of ~ 430 km and observes

space using high transmittance optical
double Fresnel lenses with a diameter of
2.5 m. It measures UV fluorescence light
generated in extensive air shower of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays including extreme
energy neutrinos, covering 250 km radius
circle of the ground area. It is designed
to detect more than 1,000 cosmic-ray
19
events above 7 10 eV during its five
years operation, with 200 k channels of
multi-anode photomultiplier tubes, frontend readout, and trigger electronics. The
instantaneous aperture of JEM-EUSO is
larger than that of Pierre Auger Observatory by a factor of 56-280.
Fig. 20 shows an extreme energy
particle colliding with a nucleus in the
earths Atmosphere, where it produces an
Extensive Air Shower (EAS), consisting
of numerous electrons, positrons, and
photons. JEM-EUSO captures the moving
track, which is revealed by the fluorescent
UV photons and reproduces the energy
development of the EAS. The telescope
requires a fast trigger system that should
be very effective for the observation of
small number of UV photons against a
variety of backgrounds.
Fig. 20: JEM-EUSO Telescope.
Fig. 21: Monte Carlo Simulation of Air Shower Tracks seen in the
Focal Plane of JEM-EUSO Telescope.
42
Our group has been involved in the

phase-A study since 2007, especially for the
development of track trigger electronics,
aiming at the launch in 2013-2015 period.
The trigger electronics deals with the
signal from all 200 k PMT channels in
the focal plane that are continuously fed
into the electronics every gating time unit
of 2.5 microseconds. The unit of the trigger electronics is called a PDM (Photon
Detection Module) which handles a matrix of 36 36 PMT channels. Total 146
PDMs cover the whole Focal Surface. A
dedicated FPGA chip in a PDM performs
the so-called Linear Track Trigger which
aims to search for correlated hits during
the trigger tracking period (11 GTUs)
along predefined track angles. The track
trigger begins with a list of hot channels
which are determined and sent by frontend electronics every GTU. In parallel the
photon counting data of every channel in

Array for Space Observation of
8 bits are also sent multiplexed with 144
Transient Luminous Phenomena
channels. For a given hot channel a comor Fast-moving Objects, Optics
putation loop is taken over all 16 track
Express 16(25), 20249 (2008).
angles. When any track angle of a hot [7] S. D. Barthelmy et al., Space Scipixel is found to have total number of hits
ence Reviews 120, 143 (2005);
integrated along the direction exceeding
arXiv:astro-ph/0507410.
the threshold, a positive trigger decision [8] Peter W. A. Roming et al., Space
is made. When the trigger is issued, the
Science Reviews 120, 95 (2005);
data in 100 GTUs around the hot pixel
arXiv:astro-ph/0507413.
GTU are sent to the next level trigger. [9] D. N. Burrows et al., Space Science
Trigger rate from whole detector on this
Reviews 120, 165 (2005); arXiv:
stage is controlled to be about 1,000 Hz.
astro-ph/0508071.
Fig. 21 shows Monte-Carlo simulation of [10] W. T. Vestrand et al., Nature 435,
air shower tracks seen in the focal plane
178 (2005).
of JEM-EUSO telescope [22].
[11] W. T. Vestrand et al., Nature 442,
172 (2006).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
[12] D. W. Fox et al., Nature 422, 284
This work was supported by the World
(2003).
Class University program and Creative [13] P. Jakobsson et al., ApJ 617, L21
Research Initiatives (RCMST) of MEST/
(2004).
KOSEF. We would like to thank So-Yeon [14] Byung-Wook Yoo et al., MEMS
Yi, the first Korean astronaut, for taking
Micromirror Characterization in
invaluable data of MEMS micromirror
Space Environments, Optics Extest in the ISS. The authors also would
press 17(5), 3370-3380 (2009).
like to thank the members of VNIIEM, [15] Minsoo Kim et al., High Fillthe Russian Space Agency, for their efforts
factor Micromirror Array Using
in preparing the launch of the Tataina-2
Self-aligned Vertical Comb Drive
satellite.
Actuator with Two Rotational
Axes, J. Micromech. Microeng.,
REFERENCES
accepted in Jan. 2009.
[1] T. Neubert, On Sprites and Their [16] http://cosmicray.umd.edu/cream.
Exotic Kin, Science 300, 747-749 [17] E. S. Seo et al., CREAM: 70
(2003).
Days of Flight from 2 Launches
[2] V. P. Pasko, Atmospheric Physics:
in Antarctica, Advances in Space
Electric Jets, Nature 423, 927-929
Research 42, 1656-1663 (2008).
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[18] H. S. Ahn et al., The Cosmic Ray
[3] H. T. Su et al., Gigantic Jets
Energetics And Mass (CREAM) Inbetween a Thundercloud and the
strument, Nucl. Instrum. Methods
Ionosphere, Nature 423, 974-976
A579, 1034 (2007).
(2003).
[19] S. W. Nam et al., Performance of a
[4] I. H. Park, MEMS Based Space
Dual Layer Silicon Charge Detector
Telescope for Extreme Energy
during CREAM Balloon Flights,
Cosmic Rays Experiments, Nucl.
IEEE Transaction on Nuclear SciPhys. B Supp. Proc. 134, 196
ence 54, 1143 (2006).
(2004).
[20] Proc. 31th Int. Cosmic Ray Conf.,
[5] S. Nam et al., A Telescope for
Lodz, Poland, July 7-15, 2009.
Observation from Space of Extreme [21] http://jemeuso.riken.jp/en/index.
Lightnings in the Upper Atmohtml.
sphere, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A [22] JEM-EUSO Phase-A Study Purple
588, 197-200 (2008).
Book 2008.
[6] J. H. Park et al., Obscura Telescope with a MEMS Micromirror

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