Author: Hovey, G.J.
Paper Title Page
MODAULT01 Thirty Meter Telescope Adaptive Optics Computing Challenges 36
 
  • C. Boyer, B.L. Ellerbroek, L. Gilles, L. Wang
    TMT, Pasadena, California, USA
  • S. Browne
    The Optical Sciences Company, Anaheim, California, USA
  • G. Herriot, J.P. Veran
    HIA, Victoria, Canada
  • G.J. Hovey
    DRAO, Penticton, British Columbia, Canada
 
  The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) will be used with Adaptive Optics (AO) systems to allow near diffraction-limited performance in the near-infrared and achieve the main TMT science goals. Adaptive optics systems reduce the effect of the atmospheric distortions by dynamically measuring the distortions with wavefront sensors, performing wavefront reconstruction with a Real Time Controller (RTC), and then compensating for the distortions with wavefront correctors. The requirements for the RTC subsystem of the TMT first light AO system will represent a significant advance over the current generation of astronomical AO control systems. Memory and processing requirements would be at least 2 orders of magnitude greater than the currently most powerful AO systems using conventional approaches, so that innovative wavefront reconstruction algorithms and new hardware approaches will be required. In this paper, we will first present the requirements and challenges for the RTC of the first light AO system, together with the algorithms that have been developed to reduce the memory and processing requirements, and then two possible hardware architectures based on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA).  
slides icon Slides MODAULT01 [2.666 MB]