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The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), a next-generation instrument for the Hubble Space Telescope, has fabricated several Engineering Model Units (EMUs) of the Multi-Anode Microchannel Array (MAMA) Detectors. These are the culmination of a series of tube builds with improvements having been implemented at each stage to provide a sufficient heritage to insure fabrication success of the flight detectors which are scheduled to begin in 1994. Good tube yields have been realized in producing these EMUs and some have performances suitable for flight. One of these EMU MAMAs has been operated for substantial periods of time after having undergone both shake and thermal environmental testing. A second will undergo similar environmental tests in the spring of 1994. An earlier demonstration tube has been used extensively for over a year to evaluate STIS gratings in the Goddard Diffraction Grating Evaluation Facility.
The STIS MAMA Detectors have now matured to the point where half of the total test and evaluation effort is concerned with the character- ization of subtle processes at a level of characterization needed to achieve data with a signal-to-noise ratio in excess of 100. We present test results from these EMUs and a status report of the MAMA detectors as the STIS program is about to begin its flight builds. The report will feature detailed analysis of data collected with special vacuum chambers specifically designed for the evaluation of these detectors.
