1. System designAA Consortium - BolognaOctober 2012 AA Consortium The path to AAVS1 22 October 2012

2. System designAA Consortium - BolognaOctober 2012 AA Consortium AAVS1 Precursor to AAVS2 – the pre-production prototype of SKA Phase 1 A large system yet to be fully defined (work in Stage 1 PEP) Probably ~256 dual polarisation elements in a number (4?) stations To verify: –All the front end electromagnetic and analogue systems –Deployment in volume –Costs and construction time in for AA-low –Scaleable processing systems –Algorithm and control of the beamforming systems –RFI screening To be built on the SKA site in Western Australia

3. System designAA Consortium - BolognaOctober 2012 AA Consortium Developing AAVS1 Based on, and extensions, of precursor verification systems AAVS0 local in Europe AAVS0.5 on target site LOFAR in Europe MWA in Australia PAPER in South Africa

4. System designAA Consortium - BolognaOctober 2012 AA Consortium Uses of AAVS0 Develop and test the electromagnetic performance of the element and array Test the mechanical design and deployment issues Develop LNA and analog chain design Develop the prototype processing and algorithms Take AAVS0 to a “16 element” AAVS1 development system, making AAVS1 ready for deployment BUT Affected by RFI and uses higher power on its amplifiers, ADC may not have sufficient resolution Tough to see anything much Astronomically

5. System designAA Consortium - BolognaOctober 2012 AA Consortium Uses of AAVS0.5 Deployment considerations at the SKA1-low site Consortium logistics in accessing the MRO Testing surrounding low-power, low-noise amplifiers and analog gain chains Signal processing trade-offs in a clean RFI environment Limited astronomical testing with a small system Potential materials issues in the environmental conditions of the site Opportunities to correlate with MWA for beam performance tests, in the event that this is seen as possible and desirable by MWA collaborators

6. System designAA Consortium - BolognaOctober 2012 AA Consortium What can we do with AAVS0.5? Measure noise temp at low noise site Check the local RFI with a realistic system Test the low power properties with low noise amplifiers and gain chain Use Australian commitment for AA-low! Establish AA-low near the target Australian site