FPGA-based real time processing of the plenoptic wavefront sensor for the european solar telescope (EST)

This paper describes the development of the plenoptic wave front sensor for an adaptive optics systems proposed for the future EST Solar telescope. The plenoptic sensor offers additional optical information compared to traditional sensors at the expense of a significant increase in the image processing. This paper will concentrate on the processing required to develop a viable plenoptic sensor, describing the algorithm and the real time implementation in FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays). The aim of this work is to demonstrate that by using the advantages of the FPGAs in terms of parallel processing, speed and cost figures the plenoptic sensor real-time processing is perfectly viable. Consequently, the proposed system appears as a competitive alternative for the traditional wave front sensors systems.