A Low-Power 14GHz Spectrometer ASIC

NASA uses spectrometer instruments for a wide range of applications, including remote exploration of climate and environmental changes, planetary and astrophysics missions, and searching for habitable exoplanets. Future NASA spectrometers require high-speed operation while maintaining low size, weight, and power (SWaP). However, conventional solutions – using off-the-shelf analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) coupled with field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) – often fail to meet these stringent SWaP requirements. Integrating ADC and digital signal processing (DSP) units on a single die offers a promising approach to overcoming these limitations. Pacific Microchip Corp. (PMCC) proposes developing a spectrometer ASIC capable of digitizing up to 14 GHz of instantaneous bandwidth and splitting the signal into 8,192 frequency bins, all while consuming less than 0.5 W/GHz. Drawing on the PMCC’s extensive experience in commercializing spectrometer ASICs, this solution will use an overlapped polyphase filter bank to reduce common DSP artifacts such as scalloping loss. The ASIC will be built to endure 3Mrad of total ionizing dose (TID) and to tolerate single event effects (SEEs). To ensure the assembly reliability, the chip will be packaged on a BGA chip carrier previously used for another space-proven ASIC. The Phase I project will focus on establishing feasibility through simulation-based proof of concept. Phase II will involve the ASIC fabrication and comprehensive performance testing.