Australian SKA Technology Research

1
Australian SKA TechnologyResearch
Ray NorrisJuly 2004
2
22 August 2001 Sen. Minchin awards US17m to the
MNRF astronomy proposal (Total budget US36m)
3
Funded Australian SKA projects(funding shown for
2002-7)

• US8m SKA New Technology Demonstrator (NTD)
• US8m Other SKA work
• RFI mitigation, site surveys, SKA international,
  MMIC/integrated receiver development, etc.
• US4m Compact Array Broadband upgrade
• SKA correlator development
• US2m Swinburne simulations supercomputing
• Includes real-time VLBI (see S Tingay talk)
• US2m SKAMP (see J Bunton talk)
• Sydney Uni Molonglo cylinder demonstrator
• TOTAL US24m

4
Recent changes

• SKA Luneburg lens to be withdrawn as an SKA
  concept
• See John Kots talk

5
NTD refocused Build a technology demonstrator at
Mileura, WA

• Demonstrate the feasibility of remote operation
  of a radio astronomy facility in a very
  radio-quiet site
• Demonstrate technology enabling a very wide
  field of view at low SKA frequencies
• Demonstrate other key SKA technologies
• Provide a facility for other groups to test SKA
  technologies in a remote radio-quiet site
• Pave the way for key science outcomes

6
Eventual goal a facility demonstrating

• Wide (gt50 ?) FOV Antennas
• Radio-quiet Zone
• Infrastructure
• Correlator
• Software
• Signal transport
• Energy provision
• A radio-quiet facility for testing other SKA
  technologies
• Key low-frequency science outcomes

7
Sample configuration
16 parabolic reflectors, each 12m diameter Each
fed by 88 phased array FOV 50 square degrees
2048 LNAs
Multiplexers
Fibre to correlator building
See RDE talk in Hybrid session for details
Filterbanks, each 1024 chan 256 MHz
Beamformers
Correlators
Plus Software, Energy supply, Data Transport,
control system, RQZ, other facilities, etc.
8
NTD Phase 1 July 2004 April 2005

• Development of a concentrator phased-array feed
  covering one octave around 1400 MHz
• Development of signal processing, data transport,
  software, radio-quiet zone, etc.
• Overall system design costing
• Collaboration with MIT on phased array EOR tiles
  optimised for 80-240 MHz
• Will share infrastructure backend as far as
  possible
• Ends with Preliminary Design Review (PDR) in
  April 2005

9
NTD Phase 2 May 2005 June 2006

• Architecture and configuration selected
• Detailed design and costing
• Prototype subsystems
• Establish site
• Start installing EOR tile antennas
• Ends with Critical Design Review (CDR)

10
NTD Phase 3 July 2006 June 2007

• Construct small concentrator with array feed in
  WA with A lt 3000 m2 (1400-3000 MHz?)
• Establish EOR facility using MIT tiles (80-240
  MHz)
• Establish facility with backend, infrastructure,
  for other groups wishing to use radio-quiet site
• Paves way, subject to additional funding SKA
  site decision, for either
• Construction of 5 SKA Demonstrator/SKA Phase 1
• Possible construction of Australian niche
  instrument such as HYFAR (high-redshift HI survey
  instrument)

11
Timeline (Provisional)