Key Technology Developments for Ultra-Wideband Array Radio Astronomy Systems and Investigation of New Concepts for Future Millimeter and Terahertz Radio Telescopes

Research Project, 2016 – 2019

Radio astronomy is a successful branch of astronomy with the means of radio telescopes, where its future developments are set toward higher sensitivity, greater field-of-view and wider bandwidth. The purpose of this three-year collaboration project between Chalmers/OSO (Chalmers University of Technology and Onsala Space Observatory) in Sweden and NAOC (The National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) in China is to strengthen the bilateral research and development in UWB (ultra-wideband) antenna and UWB phased array antenna technologies for future radio telescopes. The focus is on the key technology developments with two work packages (WPs). WP1 has four tasks, where the first two are research activities for detailed innovative technology developments and the last two are for education purpose: i) development of novel UWB feeds, ii) design of a small sub-array of wideband phased array feed (PAF) at mm-wave frequencies; iii) study the theory and the state-of-art of technology of UWB feed and phased array feed, and iv) training in using an in-house developed simulation tool in antenna-receiver system analysis. WP2 is aimed to explore new ideas, concepts and technologies for future radio telescopes, especially with two topics for on-satellite and on-moon sub-mm-wave/THz radio telescopes. Both the team buildup and the work packages are designed for multi-directional multi-level interactions and collaborations between Chalmers/OSO and NAOC to make the success of this partnership based on a large platform.