By Christian Kirsch

The Athena/X-IFU is a very ambitious instrument, combining several advanced subsystems into a complex readout chain. Due to interactions between these components, a correct assessment of its performance requires a consideration of the readout chain as a whole.

In this paper, we present xifusim, a modular, in-depth simulator of the X-IFU. xifusim simulates the X-IFU by splitting the readout chain into individual, modular blocks. The simulation itself starts with photons impacting on the TES array, whose output signal is propagated along the readout chain, including multiplexing, amplification, and the digital readout, with the final output being triggered records from which the photon energies can be reconstructed.

Depending on the multiplexing scheme and level of physical accuracy needed, xifusim implements multiple models for each individual block, which can be chosen by the user at runtime. Fine-grained control of the simulator output as well as the ability to manipulate selected internal parameters during the simulation allow the simulation of readout chain characterization measurements, environmental drifts and crosstalk. We demonstrate the latter via a simulation of crosstalk due to mutual inductance coupling in the TES array.

Access to the manuscript in ADS.