North America Array: Development for SKA-High, 2010-2020

The North America Array activities between 2010 and 2020 will be focused on development of technology for the high-frequency component of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA-high). The proposed activities are divided into two major components: (1) US SKA Technology Development Project-II (TDP-II), aimed at developing critical SKA-high technologies and improving their performance/cost ratio; and (2) testing these technologies and their suitability to deliver data by construction of an SKA-high prototype station. In fact, we expect that the most important science goals will be revised because of the revolutionary new observing capabilities of EVLA, ALMA, and other new telescopes, so the 2010-2020 decade is ideally suited for developing the specific technology that will be needed by SKA-high.

In the near term (2010-2012), we plan to participate in the detailed design and development of the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, which will be a proving ground for much of the lower-cost technology that will be explored in TDP-II. Primary activity categories to be proposed for TDP-II in 2012-2015 are listed below.

• Antenna Evaluation: Evaluate potential antenna designs; select final antenna station, and array configurations for SKA-high.
• Data Transmission Technology: Develop 40-100 Gbps data links for moving data from antennas and antenna stations to correlator.
• Digital Signal Processing: Develop low-cost multi-purpose FPGA technologies, beam-forming techniques, parallel processing, and software-correlator technologies.
• Digitization: Develop very high-speed, low-cost digitizers packaged in RFI-sealed housings.
• Monitor and Control System: Carry out research and development for small, low-cost RFI-quiet monitor and control hardware.
• Wide-band Feed and Receiver Design: Design and develop wide-band (3:1 fractional bandwidth or greater) feeds and polarizers that do not compromise system-noise or polarization performance.
• Algorithms, Computing, and Software: Explore data post-processing challenges, and test solutions on demanding EVLA data sets.
• NAA Concept Design: Draft high-level specifications and requirements of SKA-high prototype system.

The primary activity for 2015-2019 will be construction of a prototype North America Array Prototype Antenna Station, using all the best technologies developed and selected in TDP-II. The reference design is for 20 antennas of 12m diameter, but the final station composition will be determined based on the TDP-II results. The Prototype Antenna Station will be constructed at a current radio astronomy site to minimize the cost of infrastructure development. In parallel, we will develop an SKA-high costing model that will allow us to prepare a full construction proposal.

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