arXiv subjects

Aled Cuda

Publications and source records attributed to Aled Cuda.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Design and simulation of a photonic lantern-inspired astrophotonic chip for spectral sensing

Compact astrophotonic sensors can trade general-purpose spectral coverage for task-specific wavelength discrimination in a small integrated footprint. Developed with the Mazin Lab at UC Santa Barbara, this chip couples a single-mode input into a multimode interference region and seven-port fanout, producing wavelength-dependent output power fingerprints for spectral retrieval. Using ANSYS Lumerical FDTD simulations in silicon nitride, we compare symmetric and staggered-release geometries and quantify throughput, wavelength-dependent changes in the seven-port output distribution, and sensitivity near a 745 nm design point. We optimize over the tested geometric parameter space and identify designs with improved throughput and wavelength discrimination, including increased throughput-weighted Fisher information relative to the baseline. These results suggest that lantern-inspired integrated photonics can enable compact, task-specific spectral sensors for astrophotonic applications.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2024

MKIDGen3: Energy-Resolving, Single-Photon-Counting MKID Readout on an RFSoC

Building large, cryogenic MKID arrays requires processing highly-multiplexed, wideband readout signals in real time; a task that has previously required large, heavy, and power-intensive custom electronics. In this work, we present the third-generation UVOIR MKID readout system (Gen3) which is capable of reading out twice as many detectors with a fifth the weight and power and an order of magnitude less volume and cost-per-pixel as compared to the previous system. Gen3 leverages the Xilinx RFSoC4x2 platform to read out 2048, 1 MHz MKID channels per board. The system takes a modern approach to FPGA design using Vitis High-Level Synthesis (HLS) to specify signal processing blocks in C/C++, Vivado ML Intelligent Design Runs (IDR) to inform implementation stragety and close timing, and Python Productivity for ZYNQ (PYNQ) to simplify interacting with and programming the FPGA using Python. This design suite and tool flow allows general users to contribute to and maintain the design and positions Gen3 to rapidly migrate to future platforms as they become available. In this work, we describe the system requirements, design, and implementation. We also provide performance characterization details and show that the system achieves detector-limited resolving power in the case of few readout tones and minimal degradation with all 2048 tones. Planned upgrades and future work are also discussed. The Gen3 MKID readout system is fully open-source and is expected to facilitate future array scaling to megapixel-sized formats and increase the feasibility of deploying UVOIR MKIDs in space.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2021

A direct-sampling RF receiver for MOLLER beam charge measurement

We have developed and tested a direct-sampling RF receiver capable of measuring the amplitude of a 1497 MHz sinusoidal signal in 0.5 ms integration windows to within <10 ppm relative uncertainty. The receiver is intended for measuring signals from beam current monitoring cavities on the beamline of the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at Jefferson Laboratory. The signal strength, frequency, and integration window are consistent with the thus far unmet requirements of the upcoming MOLLER experiment to measure the beam charge for different helicity states.

physics.ins-det↗