KID Detector Readout Electronics Development for Habitable Worlds Observatory (2509.14363v1)

Abstract: We present the status and goals of the readout electronics system we are developing to support the detector arrays in the coronagraph instrument on the NASA Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) mission currently in development. HWO aims to revolutionize exoplanet exploration by performing direct imaging and spectroscopy of 25 or more habitable exoplanets, and to resolve a broad range of astrophysics science questions as well. Since exoplanet yield depends critically on the detector dark count rate, as we show in this paper, the ambitious goals of HWO require arrays of single-photon energy-resolving detectors. We argue that Kinetic Inductance Detectors (KIDs) are best suited to meet these requirements. To support the detectors required for HWO and future far-IR missions, at the required power consumption and detector count, we are developing a radiation-tolerant reconfigurable readout system for both imaging and energy-resolving single photon KID detector arrays. We leverage an existing RFSoC-based system we built for NASA balloons that has a power consumption of 30 Watts and reads out 2000-4000 detectors (i.e. 7-15 mW/pixel), and move to a radiation tolerant Kintex Ultrascale FPGA chip to bring low-power wide bandwidth readout to a space-qualified platform for the first time. This improves significantly over previous spaceflight systems, and delivers what is required for NASA's future needs: ~100,000 pixels with less than 1 kW total power consumption. Overall, the system we are developing is a significant step forward in capability, and retires many key risks for the Habitable Worlds Observatory mission.