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RF/IF hardware design for MKIDs application

Alikhan Talipbayev

Published Apr 27, 2024• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

This report covers work done at Data Processing and Readout System Development Laboratory at Nazarbayev University implementing data processing algorithm for readout electronics. Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) are photon detectors based on superconducting resonators. MKIDs are capable of detecting single photons with very small energy and micro second time resolutions. With proper readout electronic system it is possible to read arrays of thousands MKIDs using single signal line using frequency domain multiplexing (FDM). This report details the work done developing a laboratory setup for measuring MKIDs and developing code for frequency measurements. All the work was done using readout system based on a Re-configurable Open Archite Computing Hardware (ROACH) FPGA board and The Collaboration for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research (CASPER) software.

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This report covers work done at Data Processing and Readout System Development Laboratory at Nazarbayev University implementing data processing algorithm for readout electronics. Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) are photon detectors based on superconducting resonators. MKIDs are capable of detecting single photons with very small energy and micro second time resolutions. With proper readout electronic system it is possible to read arrays of thousands MKIDs using single signal line using frequency domain multiplexing (FDM). This report details the work done developing a laboratory setup for measuring MKIDs and developing code for frequency measurements. All the work was done using readout system based on a Re-configurable Open Archite Computing Hardware (ROACH) FPGA board and The Collaboration for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research (CASPER) software.
A microwave kinetic inductance detector (MKID) is a superconducting pair-breaking detector used for astronomical observations in the sub-millimeter through visible range. Radiation is detected as a phase and amplitude signal proportional to the frequency shift of the device. In the case of arrays of MKIDs, the read-out is performed using the frequency division multiplexing technique. However, there is currently no commercial system or low-cost standard electronics available for this task. In this work, we take the first steps towards developing a low-cost readout system for MKIDs based on the Red Pitaya board. We have developed a firmware for the efficient generation of probe tones, and show figures of merit characterizing the performance of the readout in a hardware prototype. The design is flexible, letting us to adapt it to new frequencies and amplitudes requirements of the MKID arrays.
The frequency comb generator is an essential component in the readout of superconducting detectors. This component is responsible for generating the resonant frequencies necessary to detect photon interaction with the detectors. This component however has not received the much needed attention in terms of readout systems optimization. Conventional implementations rely on either inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) engines, which scale poorly in power with increasing frequency resolution requirement but allow flexible tone updates, or lookup tables (LUTs), which demand large memory for high frequency resolution. Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) are superconducting detectors which have gained significant interest for cryogenic astrophysical instrumentation due to their high sensitivity, intrinsic multiplexing capability, and scalable fabrication. However, their simplified detector architecture shifts complexity to the readout electronics, making the development of compact, low-power frequency comb generators especially valuable. The design of the compact frequency comb generator targets applications involving MKIDs which typically detect photons in the submilliter bands. In this thesis, I present the design and hardware realization of a compact frequency comb generator. The design has been verified on an Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) using the Xilinx's RFSoC ZCU111 evaluation board. The architecture consumes less than 5% of FPGA resources and less than 5 Watts of power with the capability of handling multiple independent channels of the compact frequency comb generator on the evaluation board. These results demonstrate the potential of this approach to enable scalable, energy-efficient MKID readout systems for large-format detector arrays in next-generation cryogenic experiments.
Microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs) represent a class of low-temperature superconducting detectors employed for observing astronomical phenomena spanning the submillimeter through visible bands. Renowned for their intrinsic frequency-division multiplexing capability at microwave frequencies, MKIDs offer the advantage of eliminating the need for complex cryogenic multiplexing electronics. However, the overall readout architecture remains complex, necessitating sophisticated room-temperature electronics. Optimizing overall performance poses a significant challenge. This article introduces a novel approach to behavioral modeling and simulation for the MKID readout system utilizing Simulink and the RF Blockset library. The models incorporate major nonidealities of electronic components to investigate their impacts on system performance. In addition, the model of the MKID array is included based on measured transmission data, ensuring high simulation accuracy. The simulation tool facilitates the study and high-level design of the MKID readout system before delving into hardware implementation.
Microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKID) are superconducting broadband direct detectors. If a superconducting thin film patterned into a resonator is illuminated with photons, Cooper pairs break up and the kinetic inductance of the film changes. This shifts the resonance frequency downwards and the dissipation of the resonator increases, which can be detected in the phase and amplitude of a transmitted signal. \n \nIn this thesis, a waveguide coupled MKID is designed and simulated. 350 GHz radiation is coupled into a copper waveguide via a horn antenna. A waveguide probe leads the signal onto a 9 µm silicon membrane where it is absorbed in a 40 nm superconducting aluminum film which is the inductive part of a superconducting resonator. The capacitor of the resonator is made of niobium. Two versions of the device are developed, a transmission line resonator and a lumped element resonator design. The new design will enable an accurate understanding of the optical sensitivity of MKIDs and allow comparison of different resonator materials. Since two different resonator types are used, the direct comparison of transmission line and lumped resonators will also be possible. \n \nA measurement setup is developed including an ADR cryostat to cool MKID devices down to below 40 mK. An analog readout system using either a vector network analyzer or an IQ mixer is designed and built. The necessary software to control the ADR, the temperature monitoring, the readout signal generation and detection and the signal acquisition of the setup is also developed. \n \nThe waveguide coupled MKID design is fabricated in our in-house microfabrication laboratory and measured in the new setup. In my measurements, the devices do not show a resonance feature. The VNA and DC measurements are analyzed to determine a plausible hypothesis of the failure. The devices are diagnosed for critical issues during fabrication which will be addressed in a future iteration. \n \nTo verify the measurement setup, a test device of the IRAM NIKA 2 MKID camera is measured and the complete analysis pipeline is exercised. The quasi-particle lifetime in the aluminum thin films is measured and a dark and optical noise equivalent power are determined. The results are within the uncertainty comparable to measurements of IRAM themselves. \n \nA test chip designed in my master thesis that contains eight NbTiN resonators is measured in the new setup and non-linear effects under strong readout power are studied. Parametric amplification and oscillation of a resonator are shown qualitatively.
We present the development of a frequency-domain multiplexing readout of kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs) for pulse signals with a self-trigger system. The KIDs consist of an array of superconducting resonators that have different resonant frequencies individually, allowing us to read out multiple channels in the frequency domain with a single wire using a microwave-frequency comb. The energy deposited to the resonators break Cooper pairs, changing the kinetic inductance and, hence, the amplitude and the phase of the probing microwaves. For some applications such as X-ray detections, the deposited energy is detected as a pulse signal shaped by the time constants of the quasiparticle lifetime, the resonator quality factor, and the ballistic phonon lifetime in the substrate, ranging from microseconds to milliseconds. A readout system commonly used converts the frequency-domain data to the time-domain data. For the short pulse signals, the data rate may exceed the data transfer bandwidth, as the short time constant pulses require us to have a high sampling rate. In order to overcome this circumstance, we have developed a KID readout system that contains a self-trigger system to extract relevant signal data and reduces the total data rate with a commercial off-the-shelf FPGA board. We have demonstrated that the system can read out pulse signals of 15 resonators simultaneously with about 10 Hz event rate by irradiating α\alpha α particles from 241^{241}241 Am to the silicon substrate on whose surface aluminum KID resonators are formed.
We present a novel readout electronics system for large arrays of superconducting electromagnetic resonators, such as kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs), based on a Radio Frequency System on Chip (RFSoC) architecture. Each channel in the readout system is designed for frequency division multiplexing of up to 1024 high quality factor resonances placed on a single microwave transmission line at unique frequencies within a 512 MHz bandwidth. We describe the design of the digital and analog signal processing chains for the implementation of a two-channel 2048-resonator system on the Xilinx ZCU111 RFSoC evaluation board in combination with a custom intermediate frequency (IF) system to convert the RFSoC band to higher frequencies up to 4 GHz. We also detail an associated software interface that provides a range of tools commonly utilized for characterizing KID resonators and for operating them as part of a photometric millimeter-wave imager. We additionally provide noise characterizations of the individual readout components, along with the complete readout system in isolation and in operation to readout KID resonators.