The Low Noise Tile (LNT): Measurements at Parkes (1)

© ASTRON

After the successful completion and measurement of the Medium Size Tile (MST) in May of this year, the MST, with a 5x6 array of new LNT-elements in two polarizations, has been measured at the Parkes telescope in Australia. This was done as part of a campaign of the SKA Dish Consortium to compare the noise performance of the available Focal Plane Arrays: The Dutch MST, the Australian checkerboard array and the Canadian AFAD thick Vivaldi array. The measurements were done using the BETA digital backend, used for ASKAP.

Preliminary results show similar noise performance for the three FPAs. The final results will be the subject of a future AJDI, as soon as all the data have been processed in detail.

In the meantime, it is interesting to compare the Parkes results for the MST with the previous measurements in Dwingeloo. Both are presented in the accompanying noise plot and show that the Dwingeloo measurements are quite accurately reproduced at Parkes. The noise temperatures are between 35 K and 40 K in the 1000-1500 MHz frequency range, gradually increasing up to 50 K near 1800 MHz.

The picture shows the MST with the Parkes telescope in the background.