학술논문
The Focal Plane Assembly for the Athena X-Ray Integral Field Unit Instrument
Document Type
Report
Author
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
Source
SPIE Proceedings. 9905
Subject
Language
English
Abstract
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 stray light from the cryostat environment, low-energy photons entering through the X-ray aperture, low-frequency magnetic fields, and high-frequency electric fields.