Scalable Data Acquisition System for MKID Detectors

Alphacore is developing a low cost, scalable data acquisition system (SDAS) centered around an innovative application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs). The SDAS ASIC will have 14 bits for digitization (Analog to Digital Conversion ndash; ADC) and 14 bits or more precision for carrier tone generation (Digital to Analog Conversion ndash; DAC), with each channel handling gt;4GHz of bandwidth (instantaneous bandwidth of gt; 8GHz at 4GS/s per ASIC and tunable bandwidth range of 16GHz) along with an on-chip low jitter PLL while consuming very low power per detector readout chain.nbsp; In Phase I we successfully optimized, fabricated, and tested high-speed, low-power 5GS/s ADC and DAC CMOS designs, proving functionality of the chips at room temperature and pre-irradiation, completed radiation testing, and developed strategies include a sophisticated model for improving the radiation tolerance of the parts. The single-channel SDAS ASIC prototype complete system was successfully integrated using optimized ADC, DDS and interface with DSP. Full radiation testing of the ADC was also completed with very successful results: it was established that these designs clearly meet the hardness requirements of the target missions. The ADC and DAC designs are silicon tested and optimized for resolution. A second tapeout is scheduled in Feb 2024 (using Alphacorersquo;s internal funding) that will easily surpass NASA requirements. Firmware including RTL code for AMD/Xylinx Ultrascale MPSoC has been developed and hardware demonstrated. A combination of low power, time-interleaving ADC/DACs with innovative calibration architectures enabled Alphacorersquo;s designs to achieve high frequency operation at high resolution while consuming ultra-low power. Current estimation of total power, including the MPSoCrsquo;s FPGA computation, is less than 5.2W/1GHz, which will also be improved in Phase II.nbsp; nbsp;