A broadband fpga digital beamformer for the advanced focal array demonstrator (AFAD)

Broadband Focal Array Beamformers offer the potential to increase the field of view of reflector antennas. Such systems require a processing bandwidth of order 1 GHz and need to beamform tens of polarized beams from over 100 array elements. A number of such systems have been built but none with the bandwidth and number of elements required by the Square Kilometre Array. In this paper we outline the digital beamformer for the Advanced Focal Array Demonstrator being developed at the National Research Council's Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory - a system that meets the bandwidth and beam requirements proposed for the Square Kilometre Array.