System designAA Consortium - BolognaOctober 2012

AA ConsortiumAA Consortium

The path to AAVS1

22 October 2012

System designAA Consortium - BolognaOctober 2012

AA Consortium

AAVS1

Precursor to AAVS2 – the pre-production prototype of SKA Phase 1

• A large system yet to be fully defined (work in Stage 1 PEP)

• Probably ~256 dual polarisation elements in a number (4?) stations

• To verify:

– All the front end electromagnetic and analogue systems

– Deployment in volume

– Costs and construction time in for AA-low

– Scaleable processing systems

– Algorithm and control of the beamforming systems

– RFI screening

• To be built on the SKA site in Western Australia

A major in

stallation

System designAA Consortium - BolognaOctober 2012

AA Consortium

Developing AAVS1

• Based on, and extensions, of precursor verification systems

• AAVS0 local in Europe

• AAVS0.5 on target site

• LOFAR in Europe

• MWA in Australia

• PAPER in South Africa

System designAA Consortium - BolognaOctober 2012

AA Consortium

Uses of AAVS0

• Develop and test the electromagnetic performance of the element and array

• Test the mechanical design and deployment issues

• Develop LNA and analog chain design

• Develop the prototype processing and algorithms

• Take AAVS0 to a “16 element” AAVS1 development system, making AAVS1 ready for deployment

BUT

• Affected by RFI and uses higher power on its amplifiers, ADC may not have sufficient resolution

• Tough to see anything much Astronomically

System designAA Consortium - BolognaOctober 2012

AA Consortium

Uses of AAVS0.5

• Deployment considerations at the SKA1-low site

• Consortium logistics in accessing the MRO

• Testing surrounding low-power, low-noise amplifiers and analog gain chains

• Signal processing trade-offs in a clean RFI environment

• Limited astronomical testing with a small system

• Potential materials issues in the environmental conditions of the site

• Opportunities to correlate with MWA for beam performance tests, in the event that this is seen as possible and desirable by MWA collaborators

System designAA Consortium - BolognaOctober 2012

AA Consortium

What can we do with AAVS0.5?

• Measure noise temp at low noise site

• Check the local RFI with a realistic system

• Test the low power properties with low noise amplifiers and gain chain

• Use Australian commitment for AA-low!

Establish AA-low near the target Australian site