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. 2019 Aug;29(5):2101005.
doi: 10.1109/TASC.2019.2904472. Epub 2019 Mar 19.

Demonstration of Athena X-IFU Compatible 40-Row Time-Division-Multiplexed Readout

M Durkin  1 , J S Adams  2 , S R Bandler  2 , J A Chervenak  2 , S Chaudhuri  3 , C S Dawson  3 , E V Denison  1 , W B Doriese  1 , S M Duff  1 , F M Finkbeiner  2 , C T FitzGerald  4 , J W Fowler  1 , J D Gard  1 , G C Hilton  1 , K D Irwin  3 , Y I Joe  1 , R L Kelley  2 , C A Kilbourne  2 , A R Miniussi  2 , K M Morgan  1 , G C O'Neil  1 , C G Pappas  1 , F S Porter  2 , C D Reintsema  1 , D A Rudman  1 , K SaKai  2 , S J Smith  2 , R W Stevens  1 , D S Swetz  1 , P Szypryt  1 , J N Ullom  1 , L R Vale  1 , N Wakeham  2 , J C Weber  1 , B A Young  4
Affiliations

Demonstration of Athena X-IFU Compatible 40-Row Time-Division-Multiplexed Readout

M Durkin et al. IEEE Trans Appl Supercond. 2019 Aug.

Abstract

Time-division multiplexing (TDM) is the backup readout technology for the X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU), a 3,168-pixel X-ray transition-edge sensor (TES) array that will provide imaging spectroscopy for ESA's Athena satellite mission. X-0IFU design studies are considering readout with a multiplexing factor of up to 40. We present data showing 40-row TDM readout (32 TES rows + 8 repeats of the last row) of TESs that are of the same type as those being planned for X-IFU, using measurement and analysis parameters within the ranges specified for X-IFU. Singlecolumn TDM measurements have best-fit energy resolution of (1.91 ± 0.01) eV for the Al Kα complex (1.5 keV), (2.10 ± 0.02) eV for Ti Kα (4.5 keV), (2.23 ± 0.02) eV for Mn Kα (5.9 keV), (2.40 ± 0.02) eV for Co Kα (6.9 keV), and (3.44 ± 0.04) eV for Br Kα (11.9 keV). Three-column measurements have best-fit resolution of (2.03 ± 0.01) eV for Ti Kα and (2.40 ± 0.01) eV for Co Kα. The degradation due to the multiplexed readout ranges from 0.1 eV at the lower end of the energy range to 0.5 eV at the higher end. The demonstrated performance meets X-IFU's energy-resolution and energy-range requirements. True 40-row TDM readout, without repeated rows, of kilopixel scale arrays of X-IFU-like TESs is now under development.

Keywords: Athena satellite; multiplexed readout; superconducting quantum interference devices; transition-edge sensors.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Schematic of 2-column × 2-row TDM. Each dc-biased TES is read out by a first stage SQUID amplifier (SQ1) via inductive coupling (Min1). A row of SQ1s is turned on by applying a row address current (IRA) to the corresponding row address line, opening the row’s flux actuated switches. During TDM operation, rows are opened sequentially, reading out one TES per column at a time. Each column’s SQ1 signals are passed to a SQUID series array amplifier, whose voltage (Ver) is read out by room temperature electronics. To achieve the timing and noise of 40-row TDM with only 32 physical row addresses, we repeated the final row 8 times, but did not include data from repeated rows in analysis. This schematic is published concurrently in these proceedings by Doriese et al. [6].
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Single-column 40-row spectra of the lower energy targets. The black dots are histogrammed data and the solid red line is the best fit to data. Residuals are shown below. The uncertainties provided for energy resolution are statistical and do not account for systematic deviations from line models. (a) Combined Al Kα spectrum. (b) Combined Ti Kα spectrum.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Single-column 40-row spectra of the three highest energy targets. (a) Combined Mn Kα spectrum. (b) Combined Co Kα spectrum. X-IFU’s main energy resolution specification is at 7 keV. (c) Combined Br Kα spectrum. X-IFU’s highest energy of interest is 12 keV.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
Three-column, 40-row spectra at two energies. (a) Combined Ti Kα spectrum. (b) Combined Co Kα spectrum. These multicolumn measurements have similar resolution to the single column measurements in Fig. 2 (b) and Fig. 3 (b).
Fig. 5.
Fig. 5.
Energy resolution vs. X-ray energy in the LPA 2.5a TDM-40 data. X-IFU’s present resolution requirements are 2.5 eV at 7 keV and 5 eV at 10 keV, with an additional goal of 2.0 eV at 1 keV. The TDM-40 results all lie below this requirements curve. Estimated non-multiplexed resolution was obtained from 4-row TDM measurements, where resolution degradation from multiplexing is low enough to approximate non-multiplexed behavior. The lines between the TDM and non-multiplexed data points are to guide the eye.
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References

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