PRIMA prototype spaceflight KID readout electronics laboratory characterization
Abstract
We present further development and testing of prototype kinetic inductance detector (KID) readout electronics for the PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA). PRIMA is a NASA Probe-class astrophysics mission concept with two science instruments, FIRESS and PRIMAger, which provide spectroscopic and polarimetric imaging from 24 to 261 um. Together these instruments will explore the far-infrared sky with spatial-spectral mapping speeds that exceed previous studies by orders of magnitude, opening a vast discovery space. This increase in mapping speed is achieved by densely packed ultra-sensitive KIDs and cryogenically cooled optics. The PRIMA flight readout electronics will use the build-to-print SpaceCube Mini v3.0 which houses a radiation-tolerant Kintex KU060 field programmable gate array (FPGA). A custom high-speed digitizer board is being designed along with an RF electronics (RFE) board. The RFE was designed to provide programmable gain, band filtering, and RF switching between instruments. The prototype readout electronics, including the RFE, use functionally equivalent parts to the flight parts. In this proceeding we measure the readout loopback noise performance in the second Nyquist zone and timestream cross-talk performance. We present preliminary sweeps with the prototype readout coupled to prototype FIRESS detectors. Lastly, we demonstrate a cosmic ray pulse detection and real-time removal with an algorithm implemented in firmware.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{sinclair2026prima,
title = {{PRIMA prototype spaceflight KID readout electronics laboratory characterization}},
author = {Adrian K. Sinclair and Chris Albert and C. Matt Bradford and Patrick Brown and Sean Bryan and Jesse Coldsmith and Jennifer Corekin and Sumit Dahal and Thomas K. Devlin and Thomas Essinger-Hileman and Logan Foote and Marc Foote and Draisy Friedman and Alessandro Geist and Jason Glenn and Christopher Green and Kyle Helson and Kevin Horgan and Tracee Jamison-Hooks and Elijah Kane and Jared Lucey and Philip Mauskopf and Lynn Miles and Sanetra Bailey Newman and Gerard Quilligan and Cody Roberson and Salman Sheikh and Manuel Vega and Eric Weeks and Christopher Wilson and Travis Wise},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.24337},
eprint = {2610.24337},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.24337},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - PRIMA prototype spaceflight KID readout electronics laboratory characterization
AU - Adrian K. Sinclair
AU - Chris Albert
AU - C. Matt Bradford
AU - Patrick Brown
AU - Sean Bryan
AU - Jesse Coldsmith
AU - Jennifer Corekin
AU - Sumit Dahal
AU - Thomas K. Devlin
AU - Thomas Essinger-Hileman
AU - Logan Foote
AU - Marc Foote
AU - Draisy Friedman
AU - Alessandro Geist
AU - Jason Glenn
AU - Christopher Green
AU - Kyle Helson
AU - Kevin Horgan
AU - Tracee Jamison-Hooks
AU - Elijah Kane
AU - Jared Lucey
AU - Philip Mauskopf
AU - Lynn Miles
AU - Sanetra Bailey Newman
AU - Gerard Quilligan
AU - Cody Roberson
AU - Salman Sheikh
AU - Manuel Vega
AU - Eric Weeks
AU - Christopher Wilson
AU - Travis Wise
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/17
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.24337
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.24337
AB - We present further development and testing of prototype kinetic inductance detector (KID) readout electronics for the PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA). PRIMA is a NASA Probe-class astrophysics mission concept with two science instruments, FIRESS and PRIMAger, which provide spectroscopic and polarimetric imaging from 24 to 261 um. Together these instruments will explore the far-infrared sky with spatial-spectral mapping speeds that exceed previous studies by orders of magnitude, opening a vast discovery space. This increase in mapping speed is achieved by densely packed ultra-sensitive KIDs and cryogenically cooled optics. The PRIMA flight readout electronics will use the build-to-print SpaceCube Mini v3.0 which houses a radiation-tolerant Kintex KU060 field programmable gate array (FPGA). A custom high-speed digitizer board is being designed along with an RF electronics (RFE) board. The RFE was designed to provide programmable gain, band filtering, and RF switching between instruments. The prototype readout electronics, including the RFE, use functionally equivalent parts to the flight parts. In this proceeding we measure the readout loopback noise performance in the second Nyquist zone and timestream cross-talk performance. We present preliminary sweeps with the prototype readout coupled to prototype FIRESS detectors. Lastly, we demonstrate a cosmic ray pulse detection and real-time removal with an algorithm implemented in firmware.
ER -