A digital-receiver for the Murchison Widefield Array

作者：Prabu Thiagaraj^*; Srivani K S; Roshi D Anish; Kamini P A; Madhavi S; Emrich David; Crosse Brian; Williams Andrew J; Waterson Mark; Deshpande Avinash A; Shankar N Udaya; Subrahmanyan Ravi; Briggs Frank H; Goeke Robert F; Tingay Steven J; Johnston Hollitt Melanie; Gopalakrishna M R; Morgan Edward H; Pathikulangara Joseph; Bunton John D; Hampson Grant; Williams Christopher; Ord Stephen M; Wayth Randall B; Kumar Deepak; Morales Miguel F; deSouza Ludi

来源：Experimental Astronomy, 2015, 39(1): 73-93.

DOI：10.1007/s10686-015-9444-3

• ADC
• Channelizer
• Digital-receiver
• FPGA
• MWA
• MRO
• PFB
• Radio astronomy instrumentation
• Radio telescope
• SKA

An FPGA-based digital-receiver has been developed for a low-frequency imaging radio interferometer, the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA). The MWA, located at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) in Western Australia, consists of 128 dual-polarized aperture-array elements (tiles) operating between 80 and 300 MHz, with a total processed bandwidth of 30.72 MHz for each polarization. Radio-frequency signals from the tiles are amplified and band limited using analog signal conditioning units; sampled and channelized by digital-receivers. The signals from eight tiles are processed by a single digital-receiver, thus requiring 16 digital-receivers for the MWA. The main function of the digital-receivers is to digitize the broad-band signals from each tile, channelize them to form the sky-band, and transport it through optical fibers to a centrally located correlator for further processing. The digital-receiver firmware also implements functions to measure the signal power, perform power equalization across the band, detect interference-like events, and invoke diagnostic modes. The digital-receiver is controlled by high-level programs running on a single-board-computer. This paper presents the digital-receiver design, implementation, current status, and plans for future enhancements.

• 出版日期2015-3