Conceptual architecture of the detector infrastructure for WST

A. Meoli; O. Iwert; E. George; O. Squalli; M. Richerzhagen; A. Rüde; M. Seidel; S. Lévêque

Conceptual architecture of the detector infrastructure for WST

Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics 2026-08-01 v1

Authors: A. Meoli , O. Iwert , E. George , O. Squalli , M. Richerzhagen , A. Rüde , M. Seidel , S. Lévêque

Abstract

The Wide-field Spectroscopic Telescope (WST) is a proposed 12 m wide-field spectroscopic facility combining several multi-object spectrographs. It requires a yet unprecedented number of detectors. In this paper we present conceptual architecture for the detector controller and infrastructure required to operate a large number of detectors, potentially applicable to WST, focusing on the system-level, power distribution, and the associated data handling. We also consider how these elements may evolve over the expected development timeline of such a facility. Motivated by the scale of the problem, we outline a possible distributed detector-controller architecture, based on modular units placed close to the detectors and networked backend electronics.

Keywords

Wide-field Spectroscopic Telescope detector infrastructure spectrographs power distribution data handling distributed architecture multi-object spectrographs

Cite

@article{arxiv.2608.00734,
  title  = {Conceptual architecture of the detector infrastructure for WST},
  author = {A. Meoli and O. Iwert and E. George and O. Squalli and M. Richerzhagen and A. Rüde and M. Seidel and S. Lévêque},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2608.00734},
  year   = {2026}
}