SIDECAR ASIC firmware for astronomy applications

Jing Chen; Markus Loose; Raphael Ricardo; James Beletic; Mark Farris; Min Xu; Andre Wong; Craig Cabelli

doi:10.1117/12.2056481

6 August 2014 SIDECAR ASIC firmware for astronomy applications

Jing Chen, Markus Loose, Raphael Ricardo, James Beletic, Mark Farris, Min Xu, Andre Wong, Craig Cabelli

Proceedings Volume 9154, High Energy, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy VI; 915426 (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2056481
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2014, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

Abstract

The SIDECAR ASIC is a fully integrated system-on-a-chip focal plane array controller that offers low power and low noise, small size and low weight. It has been widely used to operate different image sensors for ground-based and flightbased astronomy applications. A key mechanism to operating analog detectors is the SIDECAR ASIC's high level of programmability. This paper gives an overview of the SIDECAR ASIC architecture, including its optimized microcontroller featuring a customized instruction set. It describes the firmware components, including timing generation, biasing, commanding, housekeeping and synchronization of multiple detectors. The firmware development tools including compiler and supporting development environment and hardware setup are presented. The firmware capability for ground-based HxRG applications and for flight-based applications like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the repair of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), and others are also discussed.

Citation Download Citation

Jing Chen, Markus Loose, Raphael Ricardo, James Beletic, Mark Farris, Min Xu, Andre Wong, and Craig Cabelli "SIDECAR ASIC firmware for astronomy applications", Proc. SPIE 9154, High Energy, Optical, and Infrared Detectors for Astronomy VI, 915426 (6 August 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2056481

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