SKAMP Square Kilometre Array Molonglo Prototype

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SKAMPSquare Kilometre Array Molonglo Prototype
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Supporting Institutions

• University of Sydney
• Argus Technologies
• ATNF
• ICT Centre

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SKAMP Team

• Bevan Jones
• Andrew Parfitt
• John Kot
• Peter Liversidge
• Daniel Mitchell
• Adrian Blake

• Anne Green
• Duncan Campbell-Wilson
• John Bunton
• Mike Kesteven
• Tim Adams
• Martin Leung
• Sergey Vinagradov

School of Physics, University of Sydney Argus
Technologies, Sydney ICT Centre,
CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility,
CSIRO
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SKAMP Specifications
Collecting area 1 of SKA (i.e. equivalent to 1
SKA station)

• Multibeaming
• Wide instantaneous field of view
• Digital beamforming
• Wide-band FX correlator (2048 channels)
• Frequency and pointing agility

• Line feed 0.3-1.4 GHz gt100 MHz instant BW
• Cylindrical antenna prototype
• RFI mitigation strategies - adaptive noise
  cancellation

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SKAMP Project

• Stage I Continuum Operation
• New IF Samplers
• Digital delay lines
• Fringe tracking
• Continuum correlator (96 station 4 MHz)
• Stage II Spectral Line Operation
• New LO
• New IF distribution
• 2048 channel polyphase filter/antenna
• Spectral line cross-correlator engine (50 MHz BW)
• Stage III Wide Band Operation
• Wide band feed (300-1400 MHz)
• RF beamformers distributed along the cylinder
• New front-end
• Digital beamformer increased correlator BW

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SKAMP Development Groups

• Antenna/Linefeed
• Data Acquisition Beamforming
• Correlator
• Signal Processing

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Antenna/Linefeed Progress

• Initial prototyping and simulation has begun for
  possible linefeed designs
• Currently being investigated is a wideband dipole
  antenna element
• A three element array has been constructed and
  tested
• Several multi element arrays have been simulated

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Prototype antenna design
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Simulation Normalised Amplitude

• Eight Element Array
• Optimal choice of spacing
• High polarisation purity (-24 dB)
• Low level of sidelobes

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Simulation X-Polar Pattern

• Eight Element Array
• Optimal choice of spacing
• High polarisation purity (-24 dB)
• Low level of sidelobes

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Data Acquisition Beam-forming Progress

• 100 x ADC boards manufactured ready to install
• Digital delay phase-tracking board currently
  being manufactured
• First fringes obtained
• Stage II samplers, IF signal transport and
  beamformers in design

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ADC Production Testing
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First Fringes
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Correlator Progress

• Correlator design complete PCB is current being
  manufactured/populated
• Testing debugging will commence early July
• Lab for testing established at USYD
• Stage II spectral line correlator design being
  revised several options for polyphase filterbank

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Signal Processing Progress

• SKAMP I interface built and installed
• Controlled acquisition of telescope parameters,
  wide field position and visibilities every second
• From ephemeris package, computed delay, phase and
  phase rates. Also calculation of telescope tilt
  and meridian distance.
• Distribution of information to delay and phase
  control units
• Imminent completion of data visibility formatting
  and archiving

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Summary

• Stage I
• Commissioning August December 2004
• Stage II
• Update design matrix
• Stage III
• Commissioning eight element prototype
• Simulation of centre fed finite cylinder