SPICA Mid-infrared Instrument (SMI): conceptual design and feasibility studies

SMI (SPICA Mid-infrared Instrument) is one of the two focal-plane science instruments for SPICA. SMI is the Japaneseled instrument proposed and managed by a nation-wide university consortium in Japan and planned to be developed in collaboration with Taiwan and the US. SMI covers the wavelength range from 12 to 36 mu m with 4 separate channels: the low-resolution (R = 50-120) spectroscopy function for 17-36 mu m, the broad-band (R = 5) imaging function at 34 mu m, the mid-resolution (R = 1300-2300) spectroscopy function for 18-36 mu m, and the high-resolution (R = 28000) spectroscopy function for 12-18 mu m. In this paper, we show the results of our conceptual design and feasibility studies of SMI.