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A digital-receiver for the Murchison Widefield Array

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Open access
Authors
Prabu, T.
Srivani, K.
Roshi, D.
Kamini, P.
Madhavi, S.
Emrich, D.
Crosse, B.
Williams, A.
Waterson, M.
Deshpande, A.
Shankar, N.
Subrahmanyan, R.
Briggs, F.
Goeke, R.
Tingay, Steven
Johnston-Hollitt, M.
R, G.
Morgan, E.
Pathikulangara, J.
Bunton, J.
Hampson, G.
Williams, C.
Ord, Stephen
Wayth, Randall
Kumar, D.
Morales, M.
DeSouza, L.
Kratzenberg, E.
Pallot, D.
McWhirter, R.
Hazelton, B.
Arcus, W.
Barnes, D.
Bernardi, G.
Booler, T.
Bowman, J.
Cappallo, R.
Corey, B.
Greenhill, L.
Herne, D.
Hewitt, J.
Kaplan, D.
Kasper, J.
Kincaid, B.
Koenig, R.
Lonsdale, C.
Lynch, Mervyn
Mitchell, D.
Oberoi, D.
Remillard, R.
Rogers, A.
Salah, J.
Sault, R.
Stevens, J.
Tremblay, S.
Webster, R.
Whitney, A.
Wyithe, S.
Date
2015
Type
Journal Article

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Citation
Prabu, T. and Srivani, K. and Roshi, D. and Kamini, P. and Madhavi, S. and Emrich, D. and Crosse, B. et al. 2015. A digital-receiver for the Murchison Widefield Array. Experimental Astronomy. 39 (1): pp. 73-93.
Source Title
Experimental Astronomy
DOI
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School
Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy (Physics)
Remarks

The final publication is available at Springer via http://doi.org/10.1007/s10686-015-9444-3

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Abstract

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.