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For the past decade our group at the Center for Astrophysics has been involved in advanced x-ray imaging and data analysis for studies of the Solar corona. This effort has led in the past to our successes with grazing incidence optics, culminating in the very productive Skylab missions and related rocket programs. We are currently constructing a more advanced, extremely high-resolution telescope utilizing multilayer coated optics for imaging in the soft x-ray regime. This technique has the ability to achieve good x-ray reflectivities at normal incidence; thus very high quality imaging, possibly down to the diffraction,limit can be achieved. At the same time, the multilayer coating technique is inherently capable of moderate spectral resolution of order λ/δλ - 50-200. Because of the requirements which must be met in an imaging detector for Solar applications - small pixel size, large detector area and ability to handle high count rates - the photographic emulsion has so far been the best available choice. Film has many limitations for space instrumentation, the most important of which for our purposes are that it needs to be retrieved and that it has low detective quantum efficiency. Thus, we have begun develop-ment of a high efficiency electronic detector system which appears able to meet all of the stringent requirements of coronal studies. We presently have in our lab a working system with many of the required features and plan to direct the future development effort toward smaller pixel size and larger detector area. Our immediate goal is to construct a 2048 x 2048 system with pixel size of 5 p, capable of handling count rates up to a few x 105 cts s in the photon counting mode, and substantially higher rates in the A/D mode. In the following we will discuss the present status of the development program and show some of our results.
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