A broadband FFT spectrometer for radio and millimeter astronomy

Abstract

The core architecture, tests in the lab and first results of a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) spectrometer are described. It is based on a commercially available fast digital sampler (AC240) with an on-board Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The spectrometer works continuously and has a remarkable total bandwidth of 1 GHz, resolved into 16384 channels. The data is sampled with 8 bits, yielding a dynamic range of 48 dB. An Allan time of more than 2000 s and an SFDR of 37 dB were measured. First light observations with the KOSMA telescope show a perfect spectrum without internal or external spurious signals.

Astronomy and Astrophysics, in press

Cited by in corpus (11)

• High-resolution wide-band Fast Fourier Transform spectrometers
• Toward Empirical Constraints on the Global Redshifted 21 cm Brightness Temperature During the Epoch of Reionization
• RFI detection by automated feature extraction and statistical analysis
• High Spectral Resolution Observation of Decimetric Radio Spikes Emitted by Solar Flares - First Results of the Phoenix-3 Spectrometer
• OCTAD-S: Digital Fast Fourier Transform Spectrometers by FPGA
• Fitting FFT-derived Spectra: Theory, Tool, and Application to Solar Radio Spike Decomposition
• Short-duration Radio Bursts with Apparent Extragalactic Dispersion
• An Integrated System at the Bleien Observatory for Mapping the Galaxy
• The Robustness of Least-Squares Frequency Switching (LSFS)
• Observational demonstration of a low-cost fast Fourier transform spectrometer with a delay-line-based ramp-compare ADC implemented on FPGA
• Current status and future plan of Osaka Prefecture University 1.85-m mm-submm telescope project