Australian SKA Planning Office

Newsletter 11, April 2007

This is one of a series of ASPO Newsletters to keep interested parties informed about the
progress of activities in Australasia related to the SKA radio telescope project. Previous ASPO
Newsletters are available from http://www.atnf.csiro.au/news/aspo-newsletter/

CONTENTS
m Introducing MIRA 1

m MWA Update 1

m CSIRO and ISPO Host Third International Focal Plane Array Workshop 2

m Science with MIRANdA 3

m First Australian e-VLBI a Success 3

Image: Chris Fluke, Centre for m News from New Zealand 4

Astrophysics and Supercomputing,
Swinburne University/CVA m News from Canada 4

m Outreach: “Wildflowers in the Sky”. Project-Tour of Mid West Schools 7

m Correction 7

Introducing MIRA for further details.This project is being led by CSIRO

With the final site for radio astronomy in Western
Australia now established on Boolardy Station
in Midwest WA (see ASPO Newsletter 10)
consultations are underway to ready the site
for Australia’s SKA pathfinder instrument called
MIRA – the Mileura International Radio Array. “tiles”, previously known as the Low Frequency
This instrument will have multiple components
with expertise and funding provided by an
international consortium of partners.
ATNF, in collaboration with CSIRO ICTC, National
Research Council, Canada (see article on page 4
of this Newsletter), University of Western Australia
(UWA) and Swinburne University of Technolgy.
The component of MIRA implemented with
Demonstrator, is now the Mileura Widefield Array,
or MWA (see article below), and this project is
led by a US team from MIT.

Combining different instruments on a common

infrastructure platform enhances the science
MWA Update
achievable, and is a direct analogue to the plans The development of the MIRA Widefield Array
for the full SKA. (MWA) is making steady progress. The first major
milestone for 2007 has been completing the
The component of MIRA implemented with phased redesign of the tile elements for mass manufacture
array feeds on dishes, formerly called the xNTD, is and assembly. The first two of these new designs
now called MIRANdA (the MIRA large-N, small-d have now been manufactured in a facility in China.
Array) and will have a large number of small One has now arrived at the Boolardy site, and
parabolic dishes and “smart feeds”. See the new the second shipped to the Boston area for
webpages at http://www.atnf.csiro.au/projects/mira electromagnetic testing.

continued over page

CSIRO www.csiro.au
The tile at Boolardy (the so-called IT system) will
be used to gather information on site RFI levels, Organisation (DSTO). Representing the radio
to check instrumental calibration (which requires astronomical FPA development projects world-wide
a radio-quiet area), and for general mechanical and
environmental prototyping.
The MWA project has recently undergone its first
review by external technical experts. The reviewers
were positive about the project, and supportive of
the technical progress. They have made a number
of very constructive recommendations to assist the
project’s development.
The primary aim over the coming months is to
develop all critical systems in the project to a point
where a 32-tile system (the so-called 32T system)
can be installed. Installation is planned to start in the
third quarter of 2007. The 32T system will include
advanced prototypes of most of the MWA systems.
Bob Sault (University of Melbourne) for the MWA
collaboration
CSIRO and ISPO Host the Third
International Focal Plane Array
Workshop
A key challenge for the new generation of fast
survey instruments being contemplated is the
ability to view large swathes of the sky rapidly
with good sensitivity. Several methods have been
proposed and research efforts are ongoing around
the world. One promising approach is to place
a phased array at the focus of a parabola – a
focal plane array (an FPA; although this particular
version is more specifically called a phased array
feed, or PAF).
A meeting to review and discuss the Technical
Challenges of SKA FPA Pathfinders was held over
the three days 12–14 March 2007 in Sydney,
Australia. The meeting incorporated the Third
International Focal Plane Array Workshop, building
on the two previous workshops hosted by
ASTRON in past years, and was made possible via
generous sponsorship from the International SKA
Project Office, CSIRO Australia Telescope National
Facility (ATNF) and CSIRO’s Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) Centre.
The meeting attracted 96 participants, representing
a wide interest group of astronomers, engineers
and industry representatives from Australia, Europe,
Canada, USA, South Africa and New Zealand.
Participants included 17 industry representatives,
including 9 from Australian SKA core sponsors
of the industry cluster (BAE Systems Australia,
Raytheon, Cisco, Tenix and Radio Frequency
Systems) as well as other companies (EMSS, IBM,
MotionTech and MawTech). Two participants
hailed from Australia’s Defence Science Technology
there were 9 participants from the Netherlands, 12
from Canada, 6 from UK, 1 from New Zealand, 3
from South Africa’s SKA project, 3 from USA and
1 from ISPO.
Participants at the FPA meeting. Credit: T. Sweetnam.
The purpose of the meeting was to review
engineering progress to date and to discuss the
challenges ahead in designing and constructing
the first SKA FPA Pathfinder instruments. Topics
covered included:
m design decisions as to number of beams and
beam separation
m FPA size and design
m which element type should be used
m how an array of such elements could be
simulated and validated
m design of LNAs
m interactions between the array and the LNAs
m signal transport, computing power and costs
m beamformer architecture and how are
beamformer weights to be calibrated
m optimal reflector antenna design.
The ultimate success of FPAs depends crucially on
accurate simulation and modelling, but arrays with
order 100 or more elements present particular
challenges in this respect. Invited talks from
R. Mittra (Pennsylvania State University) and
Jin-Fa Lee (Ohio State University) presented a
range of techniques that are increasingly making
large antenna arrays amenable to practical
modelling. Other interesting invited talks from
T. Liebsch and B. Elmegreen of IBM covered
a range of topics, from manufacturability and
reliability of large systems, to FPGA vs ASIC
tradeoffs, and high-performance processing using
the Cell processor.
Performance of FPAs in terms of efficiency, noise
figure and accuracy of the achieved reflector plus
array beams will be an important determinant of
the ultimate use of FPAs where the benchmark
has long been provided by high-performance horn
feed designs for reflector telescopes. A range of
approaches to these problems was presented,
including system modelling of beamformed beams
and array noise performance, and methods of
calibrating and measuring array behaviour. in survey speed than any current instrument.
Low-noise amplifiers will also be crucial to
achieving best sensitivity, and a number of
potential designs and competing technologies
were presented.
Groups from ASTRON (Netherlands), ATNF, and
DRAO (Canada) showed results from modeling and
measurements of the arrays under development at
those institutions. Signal processing architectures and
calibration were discussed to place the performance
and cost of FPA’s in the proper framework.
Theory and measurement are now corresponding
well, but arrays will have to be improved further to
match the performance of the best cryogenically
cooled, single-pixel horn feed systems.
Different implementation technologies for the
processing hardware were discussed, as the speed
and power budgets for the processing hardware
are becoming the limiting issues.
The presentations were interspersed with many
breaks, where the discussion typically intensified and
diversified. It was clear from this meeting that many
innovative and impressive programs are underway
to tackle this important challenge to allow us
to more efficiently assay the skies. A link to the
meeting and the talks presented can be found at
http://www.atnf.csiro.au/projects/ska/fpa.html
Dave DeBoer, Carole Jackson, John O’Sullivan, and
Diana Londish, CSIRO ATNF
Science with MIRANdA
Following the third Focal Plane Array Workshop
a two-day science meeting was held to discuss
design priorities for the SKA pathfinder
instruments in the light of the key science drivers
identified by the astronomy community.
The meeting was attended by more than 70
scientists and engineers. The Scientific Organising
Committee put together an excellent, wide-ranging
program of talks by 27 different speakers from 14
different institutions world-wide. It was particularly
pleasing that Canada, now a major partner in
MIRANdA, was well represented. The two days
were divided into five main science topics: “neutral
hydrogen”, “pulsars and transients”, “continuum”,
“magnetism” and “synergies”. These science topics
are closely aligned with the SKA Key Science goals.
The meeting opened with an introduction to
MIRANdA, and the baseline concept design, by the MNRF SKA project. Mr Adam Deller
by the project scientist Simon Johnston. The key
to MIRANdA is the wide field-of-view enabled
by the focal-plane array technologies and which
makes the telescope an order of magnitude faster
Speakers used the concept of a fast survey
speed instrument to outline their key science.
In particular, the meeting heard that MIRANdA
would discover in excess of half a million galaxies in
neutral hydrogen, detect millions of point sources,
obtain polarization measurements on at least one
hundred thousand and characterise the transient
radio sky for the first time. The final session was
devoted to activities going on around the world
that complement the MIRANdA science case.
The meeting was closed by Bryan Gaensler, Chair
of the Science Working Group for the SKA, who
outlined the next steps towards making the SKA
a reality.
The meeting gave the MIRANdA team an excellent
overview of the requirements of the scientific
community and triggered extremely useful
discussions between the Australian, European, South
African and Canadian participants. A comprehensive
science case is now being put together to take us
forward to the next stage of MIRANdA.
Simon Johnston, MIRANdA Project Scientist
First Australian e-VLBI a Success
Australia has made its first trial of e-VLBI (i.e. VLBI
with signals from several antennas correlated in
“real time”) with great success. For a total of
16 hours during March 23–25, data from CSIRO’s
Parkes, Mopra and Compact Array antennas and
the University of Tasmania’s antenna near Hobart
were streamed to Parkes, where processing took
place with a unique software correlator developed
by Swinburne University of Technology, running on
a cluster of PCs. Data rates during the experiment
were up to 256 Mbps per telescope.
Throughout these observations the antennas at
Parkes, Mopra and Narrabri, and the software
correlator at Parkes, were remotely controlled
via network connections. In fact, the whole
operation could be controlled from any of the
antenna sites.
All this was made possible by the 1 Gbps links
that now run from the CSIRO observatories in
NSW to Sydney. Installed in 2006, the links were
funded by CSIRO and provided by AARNet
(the Australian Academic Research Network).
The software correlator development by the
Swinburne University of Technology was funded
(Swinburne), Dr Chris Phillips and Dr Shaun Amy
(both CSIRO) provided critical technical expertise
in getting the experiment to work.
The observations were made at 1.6 and 8.4 GHz.
The object being studied was Circinus X-1, which
is once again producing recurrent radio flares (last
seen during 1975–1985). Observations started
about 10 hours after the predicted peak of a
radio flare, and revealed a 10 mJy source 60 mas
in extent at 1.6 GHz and significantly smaller at
8.4 GHz. These results have been announced in an
Astronomical Telegram (ATel #1037) and a short
paper will be submitted soon.
Circinus X-1, as imaged at 1.65 GHz in the e-VLBI
experiment.
The experiment paves the way for routine
e-VLBI observations in Australia: this capability
will be offered to the astronomy community next
ATNF observing period on a shared-risk basis. It is
also an important step in demonstrating how data
transfer will work for MIRA.
Tasso Tzioumis, ATNF VLBI Coordinator
News from New Zealand
Auckland University of Technology (AUT) is
investing US$500,000 in a prototype 12 m radio
telescope, which will boost New Zealand’s
chances of co-hosting the SKA (see http://www.
scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0703/S00002.htm). The
antenna, from US firm Patriot Antennas Ltd, will
be a 12-m shaped Cassegrain, operating at up
to 32 GHz, with a slewing rate of 5 deg s21 in
azimuth and 1 deg s21 in elevation. The antenna
will be located north of Auckland and is to be
commissioned in January 2007.
The New Zealand counterpart of AARNet,
KAREN (Kiwi Advanced Research and Education
Network) was launched at the end of 2006.
Brian Boyle was virtually present at the ceremony
(via AccessGrid), and spoke about the SKA and
Australian-NZ collaboration in radio astronomy.
The Centre for Radiophysics and Space Research
(CRSR) at AUT collaborates with KAREN. The
network is capable of 10 Gbps and connects all
New Zealand universities and research institutes.
CRSR has successfully applied to the KAREN
Capability Building Fund for funding for “Real-time
Trans-Tasman eVLBI” (http://www.reannz.co.nz/
assets/Uploads/Documents/2.6m-for-advanced-
networking.pdf). This will involve connecting the
two research networks, AARNet and KAREN,
into one Trans-Tasman e-VLBI network, and will
allow us to demonstrate the technical feasibility of
extending an Australian SKA to New Zealand, thus
expanding the maximum baseline of the SKA from
3000 km to 5500 km.
The New Zealand SKA Committee (SKANZ) has
recently launched a website, www.skanz.org,
that allows industries to register their interest
in the SKA. Among the dozen that have already
registered are international giants such as Sun
Microsystems, Tait Electronics, and Right
Hemisphere (www.righthemisphere.com).
SKA was presented in the Connect New
Zealand’s 4th Springboard Showcase conducted in
association with the New Zealand Venture Capital
Association. (For a photo of the SKA booth, see
http://www.connectnewzealand.com/Category?
Action 5 View&Category_id 5 108).
SKANZ representatives recently met with the
leaders of the New Zealand Opposition party
to present and discuss the science case for
development of NZ radio astronomy and the
roadmap towards New Zealand co-hosting the SKA.
Ron Beresford from CSIRO visited New Zealand
in February 2007 and helped the AUT team
calibrate the RFI measurements from potential
SKA sites, using a spectrum analyser provided by
ASTRON – an excellent example of international
collaboration within the SKA project.
Sergei Gulyaev, SKA New Zealand
News from Canada
Canada is now participating in MIRA through its
National Research Council. The Dominion Radio
Astronomy Observatory (DRAO) is one of the
institutions contributing to the project.
SKA-related technology development at DRAO
is concentrated on low-cost, high-performance
solutions in three areas that are important for
the next generation of radio telescopes such as
MIRANdA and the SKA: wide field-of-view, low
system temperature, and large collecting area. These
three areas are being addressed by, respectively,
phased focal-plane array feeds (the PHAD project),
novel LNAs implemented with CMOS technology,
and reflector antennas fabricated with composite
materials (the CART project).
PHased-Array Demonstrator (PHAD)
Steady progress is being made on the PHased-
Array Demonstrator (PHAD), a prototype of a
phased focal-plane array that will allow multiple
beams to be formed on the sky for wide-field
imaging. We have moved from end-to-end testing
of prototype components to the production of
the complete system, and will very soon enter the
testing phase of the project.
PHAD is an engineering demonstrator and
will not have the sensitivity or bandwidth of a
science-capable feed system, but will be sufficient
to demonstrate this technology and to explore
design issues applicable to a science-ready system.
One of the key design features is the ability to
store all the data from all of the elements in the
array. This enables tremendous flexibility, both in
system diagnostics, and in beamformer algorithm
development. Initial beamformer design will be
done off-line with a software beamformer that patterns measured in an anechoic chamber,
will work with stored data. Once the algorithm eventually leading to tests on a radio telescope.
has been tuned, it can be uploaded into the
FPGA-based data acquisition system and
real-time beamforming can be used for deep
integrations.
The PHAD array has 180 elements (90 for each
orthogonal linear polarization) along with a row of
“dummy” elements around the periphery of the
array. The array is 76 cm wide (or 5 wavelengths
at 2 GHz) with element spacing of half-wavelength
at 2 GHz. The elements are based on a flared-slot
antenna called a “Vivaldi antenna” and work over
the frequency range 1–2 GHz. There are no active
components on the antenna element boards.
Figure 1. The 180-element PHAD array. Credit: NRC-HIA.
The array is modular and is assembled by sliding
antenna elements into slotted posts supported by
the backplane.
Four receivers are integrated onto each board.
These receivers take advantage of modern radio
frequency integrated circuits that provide a large
amount of functionality with a small number
of components. For example, on the receiver
chip there is, in addition to the usual chains of
amplifiers and mixers, a complete synthesizer to
tune the receiver. Low-noise amplifier chips are
also on this board.
Figure 2. PHAD receiver module with four receiver
systems. Credit: NRC-HIA.
Soon we will start an extensive series of tests
and measurements, beginning with array radiation
CMOS low-noise amplifiers
The availability of very-low-noise amplifiers
operating at room temperature is key to
producing sensitive, low-cost, phased-array
receiver systems, since they do not require
expensive cooling systems. Although traditional
HEMT technology has improved little over
the past decade, the technology used to make
computer chips (CMOS) has been advancing at
an exponential rate described by Moore’s Law.
As transistors are made smaller, they not only
work at higher frequencies, but they also have
lower noise.
Although this reduction in noise has been
predicted for some time, only recently has it
been demonstrated. Figure 3 shows an amplifier
fabricated with 90 nanometre CMOS that has
achieved a noise temperature of ~14 K through
a combination of clever circuit design, deep
understanding of device physics, and careful
layout of the chip. This promising result suggests
that as CMOS technology progresses to smaller
device geometries, there are excellent prospects
for room temperature CMOS amplifiers to be
Figure 3. Die photo of a CMOS LNA that has a noise
figure of 14K. Credit: University of Calgary.

competitive with traditional cooled low-noise

amplifiers. Leo Belostotski and Jim Haslett at the
University of Calgary are leading this work.

Composite Reflectors Figure 5. The MV-1 antenna being disassembled in 2308C

conditions in Yellowknife. Credit: NRC-HIA.
The ability to build large collecting areas with
cost-effective reflectors having excellent radio-
frequency performance remains a significant
the mould is being prepared for “lay-up” of the
technology challenge for future radio telescopes.
first reflector surface, which is expected to begin
At DRAO, the Composite Applications for Radio
shortly.
Telescopes (CART) project is addressing this
challenge by applying composite materials and After the reflector is pulled off the mould (likely
fabrication techniques to low cost-per-unit- to happen in May), it will be put on a telescope
area radio-telescope applications. After an initial mount for testing. The mount that will be used is
phase examining the RF properties of different from the MV-1 mobile antenna formerly located
composite materials, the project has now moved in Yellowknife, in the Northwest Terrritories, as
onto building a 10-m diameter prototype reflector. part of the Canadian geodetic VLBI array. The
opportunity to acquire this antenna arose with
Work on the 10-m prototype is progressing
the recent end of the VLBI programme, so Dean
well. The mould for the reflector surface has
Chalmers spent a week in –308C temperatures
been received and installed in our fabrication
supervising the dismantling of the antenna for
facility – the hanger, now renovated, that housed
shipment to the DRAO site. It arrived in late
“BOB”, the aerostat used in testing for the Large
March and is now undergoing a refit for the
Adaptive Reflector. The three-part mould has been
CART project.
assembled and measured to verify that the surface
accuracy meets the design specification. Currently, Andrew Gray and Sean Dougherty, DRAO

Figure 4. The assembled mould for the 10-m reflector prototype undergoing final checks in the fabrication facility.
Credit: NRC-HIA.
Outreach: “Wildflowers in the Sky”.
Project-Tour of Mid West Schools
The second tour of Mid West partner schools
in the Wildflowers in the Sky project took place
in March. Astronomer Dr George Hobbs and
astronomy educators Rob Hollow from ATNF and
Lena Danaia from Charles Sturt University spent
a week visiting each school and working with
students and teachers.
Undeterred by the clouds from Cyclone George,
we were successful in holding well-attended
viewing nights in Meekatharra, Cue, the Pia
Wadjarri Remote Community close to Boolardy,
and in Geraldton. Each of these was accompanied
by an obligatory sausage sizzle for the students
and staff. Daytime sessions included a range of
activities and short talks with the students and
training support for teachers. Some highlights
included George describing gravitational waves
to the Meekatharra School of the Air students
in an on-air lesson and seeing students at the
other schools learn how to operate the telescope
that each school received as part of the project.
Daytime observing of the Moon at Cue Primary School.
Credit: Robert Hollow.
Correction
In ASPO Newsletter 10, we referred to Mr John Richards as the owner of Boolardy Station. In fact,
Mr Richards is the leaseholder of Boolardy Station. We regret any confusion or upset that the original
statement may have caused.
Students from Cue Primary School will be linking
up with a school in Manitoba, Canada over coming
months to swap details of their lives and their
observations.
At Pia Wadjarri we had the students from the
local community joined by 30 students and four
staff from Yalgoo Primary School who drove up
for an overnight excursion to take part in the
activities. An intensive professional development
session with the science staff at John Willcock
College in Geraldton provided them with ideas
to help develop new project materials and deliver
engaging new materials for other schools. Staff
at each school also learnt how to access and
use the Charles Sturt Remote Telescope online.
Their students will use this telescope over coming
months.
The viewing night at the Pia Wadjirri Remote Community
school. Credit: Robert Hollow.
The tour was very successful and received
enthusiastic support from each of the partner
schools. New material will be added to the project
website (http://outreach.atnf.csiro.au/education/
wildflowers/) over coming months. A workshop
session based on the project will be presented at
the World Conference of Science and Technology
Education in Perth in July.
Robert Hollow, “Wildflowers in the Sky” coordinator
For further information on Australasian SKA-related activities, please see the
regular Australian SKA Planning Office Newsletters at: http://www.atnf.csiro.au/
news/aspo-newsletter/

For further information on the items in this Newsletter, please contact Helen Sim,
ASPO Communication Manager, Helen.Sim@csiro.au

Further information on the SKA project can be found on the international

SKA website at www.skatelescope.org. If you would like to become a member of
the Australian SKA email group to receive information about SKA activities and
events, please contact Dr Michelle Storey, ASPO Leader, michelle.storey@csiro.au

Contact ASPO
Phone +61-2-9372-4100
Web www.atnf.csiro.au/projects/ska

© CSIRO. Disclaimer: CSIRO shall not be liable for technical or editorial omissions contained herein.
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