Progress in the Development of Frequency-Domain Multiplexing for the X-ray Integral Field Unit on Board the Athena Mission
Abstract
Frequency-domain multiplexing (FDM) is the baseline readout system for the X-ray Integral Field Unit on board the Athena mission. Under the FDM scheme, TESs are coupled to a passive LC filter and biased with alternating current (AC bias) at MHz frequencies. Using high-quality-factor LC filters and room-temperature electronics developed at SRON and low-noise two-stage SQUID amplifiers provided by VTT, we have recently demonstrated good performance with the FDM readout of Mo/Au TES calorimeters with Au/Bi absorbers. We have achieved a performance requested for the demonstration model with the single-pixel AC bias (Δ E =1.8 eV ) and nine-pixel multiplexing (Δ E =2.6 eV ) modes. We have also demonstrated 14-pixel multiplexing with an average energy resolution of 3.3 eV, which is limited by nonfundamental issues related to FDM readout in our laboratory setup.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Low Temperature Physics
- Pub Date:
- January 2020
- DOI:
- 10.1007/s10909-020-02351-3
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2003.11899
- Bibcode:
- 2020JLTP..199..737A
- Keywords:
-
- Transition-edge sensors;
- X-ray calorimeters;
- X-ray astronomy;
- Athena;
- X-IFU;
- Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 7 pages, 5 figures. Published on Journal of Low Temperature Physics (2020)