During the semesters and summer 2022, I worked at the CCD Lab at MIT Kavli Insititute for Astrophysics and Space Research. I designed, manufactured and tested an active cooling sensor stand in the vacuum chamber for a SONY complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensor. After setting up the experiment apparatus, I used a Fe-55 X-ray source to determine a Gaussian fit for the Fe K-alpha and K-beta lines with known energy peaks. With this, we were able to find the gain and energy conversion of the CMOS sensor. Additionally, more data was collected with a Polonium soft X-ray florescence source to investigate the sensor performance at lower energies (~1 keV).
The test stand that I built was still in use in the lab, contributing to a postdoc's current CMOS research.
The poster below for this project was accepted to Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP) 2023, and I presented my work at the poster session.
Photo of the test stand I built (I named it Psyduck). I manufactured all the copper pieces myself (I got to use a waterjet for the first time!) and potted my own vacuum USB feedthrough.
Initial design and CAD of stand inside vacuum chamber
