SIGNAL-PROCESSING FOR MICROCALORIMETERS

Most of the power in the signals from microcalorimeters occurs al rela tively low frequencies. At these frequencies, typical amplifiers will have significant amounts of l/f noise. Our laboratory systems can also suffer from pickup at several harmonics of the AC power line, and fro m microphonic pickup at frequencies that vary with the configuration o f the apparatus. We have developed some optimal signal processing tech niques in order to construct the best possible estimates of our pulse heights in the presence of these non-ideal effects. In addition to a d iscussion of our laboratory systems, we present our plans for providin g this kind of signal processing in flight experiments.