New and Improved Version of Phased Array Feed Developed

New and Improved Version of Phased Array Feed Developed
July 2018

To accelerate the pace of discovery and exploration of the cosmos, a multi-institution team of astronomers and engineers has developed a new and improved version of an unconventional radio-astronomy imaging system known as a Phased Array Feed (PAF). This remarkable instrument can survey vast swaths of the sky and generate multiple views of astronomical objects with unparalleled efficiency.
 

Infographic demonstrating the layout of the newly designed Phased Array Feed receiver that was tested on the Green Bank Telescope. Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF; S. Dangello.

 

Looking nothing like a camera or other traditional imaging technologies – like CCDs in optical telescopes or single receivers in radio telescopes – this new Phased Array Feed design resembles a forest of miniature tree-like antennas evenly arranged on a meter-wide metal plate. When mounted on a single-dish radio telescope, specialized computers and signal processors are able to combine the signals among the antennas to create a virtual multi-pixel camera.

According to information, this type of instrument is particularly useful in a number of important areas of astronomical research, including the study of hydrogen gas raining in on our galaxy and in searches for enigmatic Fast Radio Bursts.

Over the years, various other radio astronomy research facilities have developed phased array receiver designs. Most, however, have not achieved the efficiency necessary to compete with classical radio receiver designs, which process one signal from one spot on the sky at a time. The value of the new PAF is that it can form multiple views (or “beams on the sky,” in radio astronomy terms) with the same efficiency as a classical receiver, which can enable faster scans of multiple astronomical targets.

This newly developed system helps take Phased Array Feed technology from a curious area of research to a highly efficient, multipurpose tool for exploring the universe.

Commissioning observations with the National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Telescope (GBT) using this new design show that this instrument met and exceeded all testing goals. It also achieved the lowest operating noise temperature – a normally vexing problem for clear views of the sky — of any phased array receiver to date. This milestone is critical to move the technology from an experimental design to a fully fledged observing instrument.

The results are published in the Astronomical Journal.

The new PAF was designed by a consortium of institutions: the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s (NRAO) Central Development Laboratory, Green Bank Observatory, and Brigham Young University.

“This project brings together in one instrument a state-of-the-art, low-noise receiver design, next generation multi-channel digital radio technology, and advanced phased array modeling and beamforming,” said Bill Shillue, PAF group lead at the NRAO’s Central Development Laboratory.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

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