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arXiv · 2409.05643

System performance of a cryogenic test-bed for the time-division multiplexing readout for NewAthena X-IFU

Davide Vaccaro·Jan van der Kuur·Paul van der Hulst·Tobias Vos·Martin de Wit·Luciano Gottardi·Kevin Ravensberg·Emanuele Taralli·Joseph Adams·Simon Bandler·Douglas Bennet·James Chervenak·Bertrand Doriese·Malcolm Durkin·Johnathon Gard·Carl Reintsema·Kazuhiro Sakai·Steven Smith·Joel Ullom·Nicholas Wakeham·Jan-Willem den Herder·Brian jackson·Pourya Khosropanah·Jian-Rong Gao·Peter Roelfsema·Aurora Simionescu
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Abstract

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 $75\times 75\ \upmu$m$^2$ TESs that are read out via 2-column $\times$ 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.

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Davide Vaccaro, Jan van der Kuur, Paul van der Hulst, Tobias Vos, Martin de Wit, Luciano Gottardi, Kevin Ravensberg, Emanuele Taralli, Joseph Adams, Simon Bandler, Douglas Bennet, James Chervenak, Bertrand Doriese, Malcolm Durkin, Johnathon Gard, Carl Reintsema, Kazuhiro Sakai, Steven Smith, Joel Ullom, Nicholas Wakeham, Jan-Willem den Herder, Brian jackson, Pourya Khosropanah, Jian-Rong Gao, Peter Roelfsema, Aurora Simionescu. 2024-09-09. System performance of a cryogenic test-bed for the time-division multiplexing readout for NewAthena X-IFU. https://doi.org/10.1117/1.jatis.10.4.046002

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