An Acquisition System based on an RFSoC Board: Demonstration for a Ground-based Astronomical Experiment

Astronomical instrumentation and related fields have seen remarkable evolution in recent decades, driving the need for advanced signal acquisition and processing techniques. Current experiments demand readout capabilities beyond traditional approaches, leading to the adoption of a wideband instrumentation system architecture for high-speed Radio Frequency (RF) measurements. Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and System on Chip (SoC) devices, owing to their features, are well-suited to perform tasks related to the digital back-end of these types of systems.

A SoC-based solution is presented for high-speed data acquisition, processing and transfer from a scientific instrument to a PC, tested in a ground-based radio astronomy experiment with highly demanding throughput and latency requirements. It describes the hardware and software products, methodology, challenges, and choices undertaken through a case study which results demonstrate the product’s suitability and the design approach.

The datasheet comprises a collection of documents related to the implementation details of the experiment.