The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder: System Architecture and Specications of the Boolardy Engineering Test Array

Abstract

This paper describes the system architecture of a newly constructed radio telescope - the Boolardy Engineer-ing Test Array, which is a prototype of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathnder telescope. Phasedarray feed technology is used to form multiple simultaneous beams per antenna, providing astronomerswith unprecedented survey speed. The test array described here is a 6-antenna interferometer, tted withprototype signal processing hardware capable of forming at least 9 dual-polarisation beams simultaneously,allowing several square degrees to be imaged in a single pointed observation. The main purpose of the testarray is to develop beamforming and wide-eld calibration methods for use with the full telescope, but itwill also be capable of limited early science demonstrations.