Speaker
Description
Modern experiments in particle and astroparticle physics are increasingly relying on low-temperature detectors to achieve unprecedented sensitivities. Common applications of these detectors include efforts to determine the absolute neutrino mass scale, search for neutrinoless double beta decay, and detection of potential dark matter candidates. Achieving these goals with high energy resolution requires the simultaneous readout of large-scale arrays of cryogenic detectors, often ranging in the tens or hundreds of thousands of pixels. Frequency-Division Multiplexing (FDM) readout techniques, such as microwave SQUID multiplexing, are critical enablers of these ambitious programs.
For operation of FDM cryogenic detector arrays, we are developing the
Quantum Interface Controller (QIC), a modular and scalable room-temperature readout system shared across several experiments. This system supports full-stack end-to-end signal processing, including digital synthesis of the required microwave tones as well as real-time demodulation of the detector signals using FPGA-based firmware. A corresponding Python API enables user-friendly configuration of the system and processing of the acquired data. The readout electronics are designed to be adaptable to the specific needs of experiments, to improve development efficiency, and long-term maintainability. Currently, the
system is deployed in ECHo (neutrino mass), BULLKID-DM (dark matter),
and a proposed upgrade of QUBIC (CMB).
We present the architecture of this multi-purpose readout system, discuss the supported QIC hardware variants and describe the modular implementation of the signal processing firmware. This contribution provides an overview of the current status and will show possibilities for future applications.
Authors: T. Muscheid$^1$, L.E. Ardila-Perez$^1$, D.A. Crovo P´erez$^1$, M. Fuchs$^1$, R. Gartmann$^1$, L. Scheller$^1$, and F. Simon$^1$
$^1$Institute for Data Processing and Electronics (IPE), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany