We present a test platform for the Athena X-IFU detection chain, which will serve as the first demonstration of the representative end-to-end detection and readout chain for the X-IFU, using prototypes of the future flight electronics and currently available subsystems. This test bench, housed in a commercial two-stage ADR cryostat, includes a focal plane array placed at the 50 mK cold stage of the ADR with a kilopixel array of transition-edge sensor microcalorimeter spectrometers and associated cold readout electronics. Prototype room temperature electronics for the X-IFU provide the readout, and will evolve over time to become more representative of the X-IFU mission baseline. The test bench yields critical feedback on subsystem designs and interfaces, in particular the warm readout electronics, and will provide an in-house detection system for continued testing and development of the warm readout electronics and for the validation of X-ray calibration sources. In this paper, we describe the test bench subsystems and design, characterization of the cryostat, and current status of the project.
@article{arxiv.2107.03412,
title = {A test platform for the detection and readout chain for the Athena X-IFU},
author = {Gabriele Betancourt-Martinez and François Pajot and Sophie Beaumont and Gilles Roudil and Joseph Adams and Hiroki Akamatsu and Simon Bandler and Bernard Bertrand and Marcel Bruijn and Florent Castellani and Edoardo Cucchetti and William Doriese and Michel Dupieux and Hervé Geoffray and Luciano Gottardi and Brian Jackson and Jan van der Kuur and Mikko Kiviranta and Antoine Miniussi and Phillipe Peille and Kevin Ravensberg and Laurent Ravera and Carl Reintsema and Kazuhiro Sakai and Stephen Smith and Nicholas Wakeham and Henk van Weers and Doreen Wernicke and Michael Witthoeft},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.03412},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
11 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Proc. SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2020