Ronald Start

TL;DR: Silicon Pore Optics (SPO) uses commercially available monocrystalline double-sided super-polished silicon wafers as a basis to produce mirrors that form lightweight and stiff high-resolution x-ray optics.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present the status of the technology and of the mass production capabilities, show latest performance results, and discuss the next steps in the development of the system.

TL;DR: The Silicon Pore Optics technology (SPO) as mentioned in this paper is a state-of-the-art X-ray optics technology for large-scale space missions. But it is not suitable for the Athena mission, which requires around 700 mirror modules, accurately aligned to produce a common focus.

TL;DR: Athena, the largest x-ray telescope to be flown by the European Space Agency, uses a revolutionary new modular technology to assemble its 2.6 m diameter lens as discussed by the authors.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide an overview of the mirror plate design, metrology and production developments in terms of effective area, intrinsic behavior, and mass production capability for X-ray observatories.