The X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) is an instrument of ESA's future NewAthena space observatory, with the goal to provide high-energy resolution (< 4 eV at X-ray energies up to 7 keV) and high-spatial resolution (9") spectroscopic imaging over the X-ray energy range from 200 eV to 12 keV, by means of an array of about 1500 transition-edge sensors (TES) read out via SQUID time-division multiplexing (TDM). A TDM-based laboratory test-bed has been assembled at SRON, hosting an array of 75×75\upmum2 TESs that are read out via 2-column × 32-row TDM. A system component that is critical to high-performance operation is the wiring harness that connects the room-temperature electronics to the cryogenic readout componentry. We report here on our characterization of such a test-bed, whose harness has a length close to what envisioned for X-IFU, which allowed to achieve a co-added energy resolution at a level of 2.7~eV FWHM at 6~keV via 32-row readout. In addition, we provide an outlook on the integration of TDM readout into the X-IFU Focal-Plane Assembly Development Model.
@article{arxiv.2409.05643,
title = {System performance of a cryogenic test-bed for the time-division multiplexing readout for NewAthena X-IFU},
author = {Davide Vaccaro and Jan van der Kuur and Paul van der Hulst and Tobias Vos and Martin de Wit and Luciano Gottardi and Kevin Ravensberg and Emanuele Taralli and Joseph Adams and Simon Bandler and Douglas Bennet and James Chervenak and Bertrand Doriese and Malcolm Durkin and Johnathon Gard and Carl Reintsema and Kazuhiro Sakai and Steven Smith and Joel Ullom and Nicholas Wakeham and Jan-Willem den Herder and Brian jackson and Pourya Khosropanah and Jian-Rong Gao and Peter Roelfsema and Aurora Simionescu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.05643},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
Submitted for publication to Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instrumentation and Systems. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2403.02978