Array Spectrometer

Money has become available to build a 7 pixel FPA for the GBT, expandable to 61 pixels. Our GBT Spectrometer is an 800 MHz, 8 sampler, 2048 channels/IF system. Not nearly enough to exploit the full potential for an array.

Initial System Specifications

  • 16 IF's (7 pixels, dual polarizations, plus a spare pair for non-array use)
  • Sampling bandwidth Minimum of 3.6 Gs/s, 4 GS/s preferred)
  • 4-8 bit sampling
  • 1.8 GHz of bandwidth, 32K channels/IF
  • 4 Subbands to look at multiple narrow lines in each IF
  • Generate and accept up to three switching signals, plus a hardware blanking signal.
  • Accumulation for 10 ms to 10 seconds.
  • Needed in 1-2 years.
  • Useable as general purpose spectrometer for other receivers, with proper samplers/data transmission system

Eventual Full K-band System Specifications

  • 122 IF's
  • 8 GHz sampled bandwidth
  • Needed ~5 years or so.

Possible other arrays

  • Architecture useable for W-Band array receiver
  • Probably 100's of pixels

-- JohnFord - 26 Jun 2007
Topic revision: r9 - 2010-06-27, ToddHunter
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