Low-Power Wideband Digital Spectrometer for Planetary Science

The purpose of this project is to develop a wideband digital spectrometer to support space-born measurements of planetary atmospheric composition. The spectrometer is based on a superconducting digitizer and a digital autocorrelator. The digitizer will be able to handle the entire 6 -18 GHz band by operating above the Nyquist frequency (target: 30 GSamples/s). The superconducting circuits will be based on Niobium-based Rapid Single Flux Quantum (RSFQ) technology. They will be implemented without substantially impacting the cryogenic sensor package. The data from the superconducting digitizer will be processed by a 128-lag autocorrelator. During the Phase I performance period, we will determine whether the autocorrelator is best implemented using the RSFQ autocorrelator circuits we developed for the National Science Foundation, or the polyphase implementation we recently produced using fast FPGAs. The criteria for downselecting the best design will be the projected Signal-to-Noise ratios and the relative added terms to the system noise temperature. Our choice of Niobium superconductor technology will enable one single technology to implement the TerraHertz mixer, the digitizer, and the fast manipulation of digital data on a low-power low-temperature platform.

The most commercially viable non-NASA applications pertain to homeland security and atmospheric monitoring, along with digital-RF communications Detection of nitrogen-based compounds used in explosives Detection of biohazards Land-based or airborne air quality monitoring RF Spectrum monitoring for present and future wideband communications

This project will simplify wideband spectrometers in space, on aircraft or on earth by simultaneously utilizing low-power broad-bandwidth digitizers and ultra-fast autocorrelators, along with high-resolution digitization. The spectra of planetary atmospheric gases, intergalactic dust, or red-shifted remnants of the big bang in the far universe will not require using second intermediate frequencies, additional analog circuits, or stitching together several spectra. Targeted applications are: Global climate change and global circulation effects Effect of chloro-fluoro-carbons on the high atmosphere Atmospheric ozone chemistry Global air pollution Wideband studies of the early universe This technology can substantially improve the present electronics used for the Global Atmospheric Composition Mission and specifically the Scanning Microwave Limb Sounder. It can also be used on earth-based platforms such as the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. As a cross-correlator, this instrument can improve the resolution and overall performance of optical- and radio-telescope arrays.

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