The mini-calorimeter for AGILE satellite

The AGILE (Astro-rivelatore Gamma a Immagini LEggero) satellite is the first ASI (Italian Space Agency) mission of the Small Scientific Satellite program. The AGILE scientific payload consists of a silicon-tungsten tracker, a Cesium Iodide mini-calorimeter, an anticoincidence system made of plastic scintillators, fast read-out electronics and processing units. The instrument is designed to operate in the energy range 30 MeV - 50 GeV and will achieve an optimal angular resolution (5' to 20') for intense sources and a large field of view (better then 2 sr). The mini-calorimeter detector is made of 2 orthogonal planes each one constituted of 16 bars of CsI(TI) having a total area of 1600 cm². The mini-calorimeter will contribute to the determination of the energy of the interacting gamma-rays and will allow the detection of Gamma Ray Burst and other impulsive events in the energy range 0.25-100 MeV. The design of the mini-calorimeter and the results of the preliminary tests will be presented.