Impact of space ionizing environment on the warm front-end electronics flicker noise used for TES/SQUID readout

ATHENA will be ESA’s next generation X-ray space observatory. The X-ray integrated field unit (X-IFU) instrument will be ATHENA’s cryogenic spectro-imager. In this work, we present total ionizing dose (TID) tests performed on an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designed for X-IFU’s warm front-end electronics (WFEE). In particular, space environment ionizing particles could cause an increase of flicker noise, affecting the performances of such a detection chain readout. We present low frequency noise measurements of the main components of the WFEE (low noise amplifier and slow current DAC) and the effect of total ionizing dose (TID). Five ASICs were irradiated up to 200 krad with a ⁶⁰Co source. We discuss the impact on the noise of such radiation effects beyond the life-time of a space mission as ATHENA.