Published 2016
| Version v1
Publication
The focal plane assembly for the Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit instrument
Creators
- Jackson, B. D.
- Van Weers, H.
- Van Der Kuur, J.
- Den Hartog, R.
- Akamatsu, H.
- Argan, A.
- Bandler, S. R.
- Barbera, M.
- Barret, D.
- Bruijn, M. P.
- Chervenak, J. A.
- Dercksen, J.
- Gatti, F.
- Gottardi, L.
- Haas, D.
- Den Herder, J. -W.
- Kilbourne, C. A.
- Kiviranta, M.
- Lam-Trong, T.
- Van Leeuwen, B. -J.
- Macculi, C.
- Piro, L.
- Smith, S. J.
Contributors
Others:
- Jan-Willem A. den Herder, Tadayuki Takahashi, Marshall Bautz
- Jackson, B. D.
- Van Weers, H.
- Van Der Kuur, J.
- Den Hartog, R.
- Akamatsu, H.
- Argan, A.
- Bandler, S. R.
- Barbera, M.
- Barret, D.
- Bruijn, M. P.
- Chervenak, J. A.
- Dercksen, J.
- Gatti, F.
- Gottardi, L.
- Haas, D.
- Den Herder, J. -W.
- Kilbourne, C. A.
- Kiviranta, M.
- Lam-Trong, T.
- Van Leeuwen, B. -J.
- Macculi, C.
- Piro, L.
- Smith, S. J.
Description
This paper summarizes a preliminary design concept for the focal plane assembly of the X-ray Integral Field Unit on the Athena spacecraft, an imaging microcalorimeter that will enable high spectral resolution imaging and point-source spectroscopy. The instrument's sensor array will be a ∼ 3840-pixel transition edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeter array, with a frequency domain multiplexed SQUID readout system allowing this large-format sensor array to be operated within the thermal constraints of the instrument's cryogenic system. A second TES detector will be operated in close proximity to the sensor array to detect cosmic rays and secondary particles passing through the sensor array for off-line coincidence detection to identify and reject events caused by the in-orbit high-energy particle background. The detectors, operating at 55 mK, or less, will be thermally isolated from the instrument cryostat's 2 K stage, while shielding and filtering within the FPA will allow the instrument's sensitive sensor array to be operated in the expected environment during both on-ground testing and in-flight operation, including straylight from the cryostat environment, low-energy photons entering through the X-ray aperture, low-frequency magnetic fields, and high-frequency electric fields.
Additional details
Identifiers
- URL
- http://hdl.handle.net/11567/927344
- URN
- urn:oai:iris.unige.it:11567/927344
Origin repository
- Origin repository
- UNIGE