SRON researcher Luciano Gottardi has received an ENW-XS grant from NWO to read out a thousand X-ray detectors simultaneously with a single amplifier. The new readout follows the same principle as KIDs, which are already used to detect far-infrared and visible light particles.
traditional readout scheme
The X-IFU instrument onboard the future X-ray telescope NewAthena reads out its 1,500 pixels each with a separate amplifier that switches on and off every tenth of a microsecond. It distinguishes between the pixels by reading them out at specific times. In such a traditional readout scheme only a maximum of forty pixels can be read out simultaneously by a single amplifier chain. X-IFU therefore needs about fifty amplifier chains. The X-IFU detectors are based on Transition Edge Sensors (TES) that detect individual X-ray particles and determine the energy for each particle.
microwave resonator
SRON researcher Luciano Gottardi has now received an ENW-XS grant from NWO to replace the readout system for X-ray TES with a resonator operating in the microwave region. This new sensor is similar to the Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KIDs) that SRON has been developing for many years for far-infrared and visible light telescopes. A small change in the current produced by the detector when an X-ray particle strikes causes a measurable shift in the microwave resonator’s frequency.
prototype
Gottardi will use the grant to develop an initial prototype, with only a few resonators to start with. If successful, it will open the way to future systems that read out over five thousand X-ray pixels with one amplifier.