ABSTRACT
This chapter presents one instrumental concept based on pixel cadmium telluride (CdTe) detectors for new space instruments, from x-rays to soft gamma rays. Polarimetry measurements would help to discriminate between emission coming from the jets and the corona in microquasars and validate or invalidate some models of prompt hard x-ray emission in gamma-ray bursts. Caliste devices are not only imaging spectrometers resolved in time but can be used in hard x-rays as Compton polarimeters. Caliste, is based on three-dimensional (3-D) integration of the CdTe crystal and its associated front-end electronics into a system-in-package hybrid modular component. A group at CEA has contributed to playing a major role in this field, creating and promoting the Caliste product line, an original configuration of CdTe-based pixel detectors using 3-D technology assembly for the integration of IDeF-X readout chips. The maturity of the Caliste product line is good enough to foresee applications in other fields of application, such as portable devices for radiation monitoring.
