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This paper describes a radio frequency system on chip (RFSoC) readout system designed to simultaneously monitor over 10,000 kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs) operating at 280 GHz for the Prime-Cam instrument at the CCAT Observatory in Chile. The research team successfully demonstrated that five custom RFSoC units can read out more than 10,000 detectors, with each unit handling four RF channels supporting up to 1,000 detectors per channel across a 512 MHz bandwidth. The system was validated through detector mapping of the focal plane and preliminary spectral response measurements from TiN and aluminum detector arrays.
Why it matters
This technology enables large-scale astronomical observations at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths, representing a significant advancement in detector readout capabilities for radio astronomy. The scalable system paves the way for reading out approximately 100,000 detectors in the full Prime-Cam configuration, which will enhance the telescope's ability to conduct sensitive surveys of the universe at these wavelengths.
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⚠️ Preprint – Noch nicht peer-reviewed
Dieser Artikel wurde noch nicht von unabhängigen Experten begutachtet. Die Ergebnisse sind vorläufig und sollten mit Vorsicht interpretiert werden.
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Abstract: Over the past decade, kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs) have emerged as a viable superconducting technology for astrophysics at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. KIDs spanning 210 – 850 GHz across seven instrument modules will be deployed in the Prime-Cam instrument of CCAT Observatory’s Fred Young Submillimeter Telescope at an elevation of 5600 m on Cerro Chajnantor in Chile’s Atacama Desert. The natural frequency-division multiplexed readout of KIDs allows hundreds of detectors to be coupled to a single radio frequency (RF) transmission line, but requires sophisticated warm readout electronics. The FPGA-based Xilinx ZCU111 radio frequency system on chip (RFSoC) offers a promising and flexible solution to the challenge of warm readout. CCAT uses custom packaged RFSoCs to read out KIDs in the Prime-Cam instrument. Each RFSoC can simultaneously read out four RF channels with up to 1,000 detectors spanning a 512 MHz bandwidth per channel using the current firmware. We use five RFSoCs to read out the >10,000 KIDs in the broadband 280 GHz instrument module. Here, we describe and demonstrate the readout hardware, software and pipeline for the RFSoC system. We present a detector position map of the 280 GHz module focal plane and preliminary averaged spectral responses of a small subset of detectors from the TiN and first Al arrays. These measurements demonstrate our ability to simultaneously readout thousands of detectors, validate the end-to-end performance of the readout and optical systems, and represent a critical step toward reading out the ~100,000 KIDs in Prime-Cam in its future full capacity configuration.