Receiver Development for Square Kilometre Array, SKA

Purpose and goal

The purpose of the project has been to maximise the chances for a Swedish delivery of the Band 1 receiver to Square Kilometre Array, SKA. We consider the purpose achieved as we now have a well defined plan for the industrialisation phase of the SKA project including produceability, testability, reliability and other parameters that are required to offer the full production of the receiver system. The contract is estimated to 60-80 MSEK for up to 130 planned receivers. This means that Sweden now has a credible capacity to deliver Band 1 as an in-kind contribution to the SKA project.

Expected results and effects

The project has resulted in a well defined plan for the industrialisation phase for Band 1 to SKA. The design is reviewed with respect to quality and product assurance and acess to critical components and subsystems are secured. Production chains are defined and optimised with respect to critical resources such as clean room access, test plans on system and subsystem level etc. In conclusion no big uncertainties remain. Remaining challenges are related to unknown procurement factors like detailed operational environments, operations and similar.

Planned approach and implementation

Most important parts of project have been review of the design, production planning and product assurance of critical subsystems. No major need for redesign from the development phase has been identified. Critical subsystems are Quad Ridge Feed Horn (QRFH) which constitutes the antenna feed for the receiver, and low noise amplifiers (LNA:s). We have separated prestanda parameters to be verified with and without the QRFH in the test flow. Test methods for gain stability, linearity and noise injection are defined. A setup for near field measurements of the QRFH is prepared.