New facility protects SKA-Low from unwanted interference

BY SEBASTIAN NEUWEILER (SKAO)

Ever wondered how we ensure our telescopes will be protected from the electronic noise of the very systems that make them operational? In Australia, a state-of-the art facility has been completed that will help us test technology for radio frequency interference.

The SKA Observatory telescopes will be extremely sensitive instruments – designed to detect the faintest of radio signals from space. Owing to these sensitivities, all electrical equipment needs to be tested to ensure it doesn’t leak radio waves that would impede our ability to detect these faint signals.

SKA-Low RFI-EMC Engineer Paul Van Der Merwe said any technology that has the potential to interfere with the telescopes would need to be shielded in specially designed cases.

“The SKA-Low telescope requires unparalleled radio quietness,” he said. “Any technology used in proximity to the antennas must meet the strictest radio interference requirements.”

One of the best ways to make sure telescope systems and associated hardware are compliant is testing them in a reverberation chamber – a room with metallic walls that reflect sound – before they go to site.

EMITE OTA test systems, a high-tech company spun-out from the Technical University of Cartagena in Spain, together with Australian partner company Maser, recently manufactured and installed a reverberation chamber at the SKA-Low Engineering Operations Centre in Western Australia.

The reverberation chamber will be used to characterise the emissions from unshielded technology. This information can then be used to determine the shielding requirements for specific equipment.

So far the team have tested microwaves, radios and custom electronics to identify and prevent possible interference with the telescope, as well as testing the chamber itself for self interference.

EMITE CEO David Sanchez Hernandez said: “Our task is small, a link in the long chain of an extraordinarily complex and challenging project, but one we feel very proud of and acknowledge the confidence that the SKAO project showed in us from minute zero.”

The facility in Australia will be complemented by others elsewhere in the world, including the recently accredited RISE facility in Sweden. RISE has developed instrumentspecific processing software for testing electromagnetic emissions (EMC) from the extremely sensitive radio receivers and other electronic products for the telescopes.