SLAC Microresonator RF (SMuRF) Electronics: A tone-tracking readout system for superconducting microwave resonator arrays

TL;DR

The paper introduces the latest SMuRF electronics system, a digital readout for large arrays of cryogenic microwave resonators, featuring a novel tone-tracking algorithm that reduces RF power and improves linearity for astrophysics and particle physics applications.

Contribution

It presents the design, hardware, firmware, and software of the SMuRF system, highlighting its unique closed-loop tone-tracking algorithm for multiplexed cryogenic detector readout.

Findings

Supports up to 3328 channels across 4-8 GHz

Reduces RF power transmitted to the cold amplifier

Successfully deployed in lab and field environments

Abstract

We describe the newest generation of the SLAC Microresonator RF (SMuRF) electronics, a warm digital control and readout system for microwave-frequency resonator-based cryogenic detector and multiplexer systems such as microwave SQUID multiplexers ($\mu$mux) or microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs). Ultra-sensitive measurements in particle physics and astronomy increasingly rely on large arrays of cryogenic sensors, which in turn necessitate highly multiplexed readout and accompanying room-temperature electronics. Microwave-frequency resonators are a popular tool for cryogenic multiplexing, with the potential to multiplex thousands of detector channels on one readout line. The SMuRF system provides the capability for reading out up to 3328 channels across a 4-8 GHz bandwidth. Notably, the SMuRF system is unique in its implementation of a closed-loop tone-tracking algorithm that minimizes RF power transmitted to the cold amplifier, substantially relaxing system linearity requirements and effective noise from intermodulation products. Here we present a description of the hardware, firmware, and software systems of the SMuRF electronics, comparing achieved performance with science-driven design requirements. We focus in particular on the case of large channel count, low bandwidth applications, but the system has been easily reconfigured for high bandwidth applications. The system described here has been successfully deployed in lab settings and field sites around the world and is baselined for use on upcoming large-scale observatories.