MKIDGen3: Energy-Resolving, Single-Photon-Counting MKID Readout on an RFSoC

TL;DR

The paper introduces MKIDGen3, a scalable, energy-resolving, single-photon-counting MKID readout system that uses modern FPGA design tools to read out thousands of detectors efficiently, with significant improvements in size, weight, and cost.

Contribution

It presents the third-generation MKID readout system leveraging RFSoC technology and modern FPGA design tools for enhanced scalability and maintainability.

Findings

Reads out 2048 MKID channels per board

Achieves detector-limited resolving power with minimal degradation

Reduces size, weight, and power compared to previous systems

Abstract

Building large, cryogenic MKID arrays requires processing highly-multiplexed, wideband readout signals in real time; a task that has previously required large, heavy, and power-intensive custom electronics. In this work, we present the third-generation UVOIR MKID readout system (Gen3) which is capable of reading out twice as many detectors with a fifth the weight and power and an order of magnitude less volume and cost-per-pixel as compared to the previous system. Gen3 leverages the Xilinx RFSoC4x2 platform to read out 2048, 1 MHz MKID channels per board. The system takes a modern approach to FPGA design using Vitis High-Level Synthesis (HLS) to specify signal processing blocks in C/C++, Vivado ML Intelligent Design Runs (IDR) to inform implementation stragety and close timing, and Python Productivity for ZYNQ (PYNQ) to simplify interacting with and programming the FPGA using Python. This design suite and tool flow allows general users to contribute to and maintain the design and positions Gen3 to rapidly migrate to future platforms as they become available. In this work, we describe the system requirements, design, and implementation. We also provide performance characterization details and show that the system achieves detector-limited resolving power in the case of few readout tones and minimal degradation with all 2048 tones. Planned upgrades and future work are also discussed. The Gen3 MKID readout system is fully open-source and is expected to facilitate future array scaling to megapixel-sized formats and increase the feasibility of deploying UVOIR MKIDs in space.