16-18 September 2019
Hotel Collegium Leoninum
Europe/Berlin timezone
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Contribution Oral presentation

Hotel Collegium Leoninum -
PAF frontend technology

A cryogenic phased array receiver for the Parkes radiotelescope

Speakers

  • Mr. Alex DUNNING

Primary authors

Summary

The Parkes radiotelescope has a prime focus reflector with an f/d of 0.42. These characteristics make it a good candidate for a phased array receiver as a wide field of view is possible and the focal length is short enough that the array extent need not be excessively large. We present the design and predicted performance of a cryogenic phased array receiver for the Parkes radiotelescope covering the frequency range 700-1900MHz. The array will have 196 simultaneously sampled ports enabling it to form a maximum of 72 dual polarisation beams. The feed geometry is based on the ‘rocket’ element followed by a differential low noise amplifier. At these frequencies the LNA may contribute only a small portion of the system noise and the penalty of raising the LNA physical temperature is modest. For this reason and because of the relatively high power dissipation of the LNAs we have chosen a single stage cooling architecture. We present some of the key elements of the microwave design including the design methodology and the predicted sensitivity over the field of view as well as the predicted thermal performance and some of the difficulties associated with developing a large cryogenic PAF.