0000000000084815
AUTHOR
Fabrizio Villa
Thermal Filters for the ATHENA X-IFU: Ongoing Activities Toward the Conceptual Design
ATHENA is the L2 mission selected by ESA to pursue the science theme “Hot and Energetic Universe.” One of the two focal plane instruments is the X-ray Integral Field Unit, an array of TES microcalorimeters operated at T $$<$$ 100 mK. To allow the X-ray photons focused by the telescope to reach the detector, windows have to be opened on the cryostat thermal shields. X-ray transparent filters need to be mounted on these open windows to attenuate the IR radiation from warm surfaces, to attenuate RF electromagnetic interferences on TES sensors and SQUID electronics, and to protect the detector from contamination. This paper reviews the ongoing activities driving the design of the X-IFU thermal …
ATHENA X-IFU thermal filters development status toward the end of the instrument phase-A
Copyright 2018 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic reproduction and distribution, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modification of the content of the paper are prohibited. The X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) is one of the two instruments of the Athena astrophysics space mission approved by ESA in the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Science Programme. The X-IFU consists of a large array of transition edge sensor micro-calorimeters that will operate at 100 mK inside a sophisticated cryostat. A set of thin filters, highly transparent to X-rays, will be m…
Radio frequency shielding of thin aluminized plastic filters investigated for the ATHENA X-IFU detector
Copyright 2018 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic reproduction and distribution, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modification of the content of the paper are prohibited. The X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) is one of the two detectors of the ATHENA astrophysics space mission approved by ESA in the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Science Programme. The X-IFU consists of a large array of transition edge sensors (TES) micro-calorimeters covering a field of view of 5' diameter, sensitive in the energy range 0.2-12 keV, and providing a spectral resolution…
The Athena X-ray Integral Field Unit: a consolidated design for the system requirement review of the preliminary definition phase
The Athena X-ray Integral Unit (X-IFU) is the high resolution X-ray spectrometer, studied since 2015 for flying in the mid-30s on the Athena space X-ray Observatory, a versatile observatory designed to address the Hot and Energetic Universe science theme, selected in November 2013 by the Survey Science Committee. Based on a large format array of Transition Edge Sensors (TES), it aims to provide spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy, with a spectral resolution of 2.5 eV (up to 7 keV) over an hexagonal field of view of 5 arc minutes (equivalent diameter). The X-IFU entered its System Requirement Review (SRR) in June 2022, at about the same time when ESA called for an overall X-IFU redesign (i…