A dense aperture array with photonic beamforming for radio astronomy

This paper addresses the design and technologies of photonic beamformers relevant for use in the context of the socalled dense aperture arrays for the Square Kilometre Array[1]. The photonic beamformer approach complements the more conventional albeit state-of-the art RF and digital beamforming approach presently projected and the work aims to identify relevant design and technology issues for future use. This paper addresses these and presents the photonic design approach on a 36 element demonstrator array for possible use with the SKA of a 4:1 frequency bandwidth, UHF-band array having millions of elements.