An FPGA-based data acquisition and processing system for the MATMOS FTIR instrument

The MATMOS Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectrometer is a concept instrument designed to measure the Mars atmospheric composition using solar occultation from orbit. MATMOS requires high sampling rate (up to 300 kHz), high dynamic range (up to 22 bits) data acquisition to record time-domain interferograms which get converted to spectra on-board the spacecraft. Our previous work presented a system that utilized the Xilinx Virtex-4FX hybrid-FPGA to process raw interferogram data in a mixed HW/SWenvironment. We are now expanding the role of the FPGA to the analog data acquisition domain by interfacing it to high bandwidth, high data rate analog-to-digital converters. The quality of the collected data is verified by recording ground-based solar spectra with the existing JPL MkIV interferometer using the new acquisition system in parallel with the standard MkIV electronics. Processing time is reduced by upgrading to the Xilinx Virtex-5FXT FPGA.