PACIFIC MICROCHIP CORP. — National Aeronautics and Space Administration SBIR Phase I: S11

Description

Far-infrared and sub-mm astronomy employs MKIDs for ultimate sensitivity and resolution exceeding 10,000 pixels. Detector array readout requires RF frequency division multiplexing and complex multichannel signal processing. An FPGA based DSP used for frequency band channelizing and power level measuring in each bin suffers of suboptimum size, weight and power (SWaP).We propose to develop an ASIC which will channelize the spectrum into 1024k frequency bins with 0.95KHz per bin. The ASIC will include two 12-bit 1GS/s ADCs, a data alignment and demultiplexing block, a poly-phase filter bank based FFT core and an accumulation/readout block including a high-speed 16Gbps ESI Stream interface. Additionally, the ASIC will include a PLL for clock synthesis, a debug memory for storing of short duration raw digitized data or the debug data for the FFT core. A digital control subsystem will handle the entire ASICrsquo;s operation and communication. In addition to minimized SWaP, the ASIC will tolerate TID and SEE, and will operate below standard -40C temperature.Within Phase I we will provide the proof of feasibility of implementing the proposed ASIC. Phase II will result in the silicon proven ASIC prototypes.