Happy New Year 2021

Another year is getting to an end, and 2020 will be remembered as the year of a pandemic, which affected our lives in many different ways. Despite the burden this situation has created, the development of X-IFU has moved forward, with several key decisions taken to secure its development path. A few days ago, we celebrated two years since the formal endorsement of the X-IFU Consortium by ESA. On this occasion, we published an article summarising the major highlights of the past two years, thus including a retrospective of 2020. We invite you to read it here.

2021 will be another important year for X-IFU, with industry providing its first feedback on the cryostat design, and with the X-IFU system requirement review expected later in the year, in preparation for the Athena adoption still planned for mid-2022. Hopefully, our members will be able to meet and discuss all these advancements during a face-to-face Consortium meeting in 2021.

Many of us feel the need for a well-deserved break. So let us, on behalf of the X-IFU Consortium, wish you happy holidays and a happy New Year!

Didier Barret & Vincent Albouys
X-IFU Principal Investigator & Project Manager

Plus d'actualités

Understanding TES Performance in Modified Bias Circuits for X-IFU Multiplexed Readout

A recent paper by Smith et al., « Transition-edge sensor characteristics in a modified bias circuit for multiplexed readout, »has been accepted for publication in the IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity. The work addresses an important aspect of X-IFU detector readout: the impact of incorporating a bypass resistor into the bias circuit used for time-division multiplexing (TDM). […]

Successful coupling of the X-IFU Warm Front-End Electronics demonstrator at SRON

A major milestone has been reached beginning of October 2025 in the development of the Warm Front-End Electronics (WFEE) for the ATHENA X-IFU detection chain with the successful coupling of WFEE demonstrator model 2 (DM2) during the Focal Plane Assembly (FPA) DM1.1 test campaign at SRON (Space Research Organisation Netherlands). The WFEE, developed by APC […]

The first test of the Cryogenic AntiCoincidence detector (CryoAC) inside the X-IFU Demonstration Model 1.1 has been successfully completed

Image above : The CryoAC demonstration prototype integrated in the detectors flange of the Focal Plane Assembly Demonstration Model 1.1. Image credit: SRON. The X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU) is the cryogenic instrument onboard NewAthena mission. In the late 30s, it will transform our understanding of the hottest components and the most energetic phenomena in […]

Rechercher