The Cryogenic AntiCoincidence Detector for the ATHENA X-IFU: Design Aspects by Geant4 Simulation and Preliminary Characterization of the New Single Pixel

The ATHENA observatory is the second large-class ESA mission, in the context of the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025, scheduled to be launched on 2028 at L2 orbit. One of the two planned focal plane instruments is the X-ray Integral Field Unit (X-IFU), which will be able to perform simultaneous high-grade energy spectroscopy and imaging over the 5 arcmin FoV by means of a kilo-pixel array of transition-edge sensor (TES) microcalorimeters, coupled to a high-quality X-ray optics. The X-IFU sensitivity is degraded by the particle background, induced by primary protons of both solar and cosmic rays' origin and secondary electrons. A Cryogenic AntiCoincidence (CryoAC) TES-based detector, located 2 area, made of 65 Ir TESs