GROUP 6 WIDEBAND ARTIFICIAL PULSAR Alexander Botten Kerlin Canelli Advisor: Randy McCullough

BACKGROUND What is a Pulsar?  rotating neutron star that emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation  Think of a lighthouse

BACKGROUND  the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope.  Operates GHz  Discovered three new millisecond pulsars Green Bank Telescope

PROBLEM STATEMENT  Over the years, analytical systems have been updated.  Limited time for testing  Solution: Artificial Pulsar

CURRENT ARTIFICIAL PULSAR  Does not accurately represent real pulsar  Bandwith is too small  No pulse dispersion  Standard signal generator

NEW ARTIFICIAL PULSAR  Larger Bandwith – (100MHz-1000MHz)  Command Line Interface  Adjustable pulse amplitude  User selectable pulse width and period  Polarization of pulses  Independent noise floor  Sub pulses and interpulses

CURRENT BLOCK DIAGRAM

NEW DESIGN

COMPONENTS  Noise source  Digital to Analog Converters  Band pass filter  Voltage Controlled Attenuator  Dispersive Non-Linear Transmission Line  Power Dividers

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION  Design and simulate using Green Bank software  Finalized design, build  Operator’s Manual

CONCLUSION  Current ArtificIal pulsar is outdated  New Artificial Pulsar needed to test backends  One-off Scientific device

QUESTIONS?