Progress in the Development of Frequency-Domain Multiplexing for the X-ray Integral Field Unit on Board the Athena Mission

Frequency-domain multiplexing (FDM) is the baseline readout system for the X-ray Integral Field Unit on board the Athena mission. Under the FDM scheme, TESs are coupled to a passive LC filter and biased with alternating current (AC bias) at MHz frequencies. Using high-quality-factor LC filters and room-temperature electronics developed at SRON and low-noise two-stage SQUID amplifiers provided by VTT, we have recently demonstrated good performance with the FDM readout of Mo/Au TES calorimeters with Au/Bi absorbers. We have achieved a performance requested for the demonstration model with the single-pixel AC bias ($$\Delta E=1.8\,\hbox {eV}$$) and nine-pixel multiplexing ($$\Delta E=2.6\,\hbox {eV}$$) modes. We have also demonstrated 14-pixel multiplexing with an average energy resolution of 3.3 eV, which is limited by nonfundamental issues related to FDM readout in our laboratory setup.