A Multilayer AstroPix Payload for a Sounding Rocket Technology Demonstration

The AstroPix detector enables novel designs of Compton and Pair telescopes by enhancing the tracking of secondary charged particles produced through interactions with incident astrophysical gamma-rays. AstroPix is a monolithic Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) active pixel sensor that combines low noise operation with precise interaction location knowledge by embedding charge collection, signal amplification, and signal discrimination within each pixel. A sounding rocket flight of a prototype multi-layered AstroPix instrument will demonstrate the maturity of the technology and its capacity to improve the next generation of gamma-ray observatories for advancing the exploration of time domain astronomy and multi-messenger astrophysics. Updates to the frontend readout and backend data handling hardware and firmware inherited from testing AstroPix’s precursor, ATLASPix, will yield a compact, low-power, flight-ready instrument payload. We present the current design and state of development of an AstroPix multi-layer payload for a planned sounding rocket technology demonstration.