Front-end Multiplexing - applied to SQUID multiplexing : Athena X-IFU and QUBIC experiments

TL;DR

This paper discusses front-end multiplexing techniques to manage increasing pixel counts in high-tech imagers, focusing on their application in astronomical instruments like SQUID-based systems in millimeter and X-ray ranges.

Contribution

It provides an overview of front-end multiplexing methods, analyzing their advantages and limitations, with specific application cases in SQUID-based astronomical instruments.

Findings

Multiplexing simplifies large array readouts in high-resolution imagers.

Techniques enable integration of multiplexers directly in focal planes.

Applications include millimeter and X-ray astronomical instruments.

Abstract

As we have seen for digital camera market and a sensor resolution increasing to "megapixels", all the scientific and high-tech imagers (whatever the wave length - from radio to X-ray range) tends also to always increases the pixels number. So the constraints on front-end signals transmission increase too. An almost unavoidable solution to simplify integration of large arrays of pixels is front-end multiplexing. Moreover, "simple" and "efficient" techniques allow integration of read-out multiplexers in the focal plane itself. For instance, CCD (Charge Coupled Device) technology has boost number of pixels in digital camera. Indeed, this is exactly a planar technology which integrates both the sensors and a front-end multiplexed readout. In this context, front-end multiplexing techniques will be discussed for a better understanding of their advantages and their limits. Finally, the cases of astronomical instruments in the millimeter and in the X-ray ranges using SQUID (Superconducting QUantum Interference Device) will be described.