Development of the superconducting detectors and read-out for the X-IFU instrument on board of the X-ray observatory Athena

• DOI: 10.1016/j.nima.2015.09.072
• Publication Date: 2015-10-05T08:47:08Z
• Authors: L. Gottardi; H. Akamatsu; M.P. Bruijn; R. den Hartog; J.-W. den Herder; B. Jackson; M. Kiviranta; J. van der Kuur; H. van Weers
• Keywords: On board

The Advanced Telescope for High-Energy Astrophysics (Athena) has been selected by ESA as its second large-class mission. The future European X-ray observatory will study the hot and energetic Universe with its launch foreseen in 2028. Microcalorimeters based on superconducting Transition-edge sensor (TES) are the chosen technology for the detectors array of the X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) on board of Athena. The X-IFU is a 2-D imaging integral-field spectrometer operating in the soft X-ray band (0.3 -12 keV). The detector consists of an array of 3840 TESs coupled to X-ray absorbers and read out in the MHz bandwidth using Frequency Domain Multiplexing (FDM) based on Superconducting QUantum Interference Devices (SQUIDs). The proposed design calls for devices with a high filling-factor, high quantum efficiency, relatively high count-rate capability and an energy resolution of 2.5 eV at 5.9 keV. The paper will review the basic principle and the physics of the TES-based microcalorimeters and present the state-of-the art of the FDM read-out.<br/>4 pages,4 figures, available on line (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168900215011274)<br/>