The Phased Array Approach to SKA, Results of a Demonstrator Project

A phased-array demonstrator known as the Thousand Element Array (THEA) is currently under construction of which the first results are presented in this paper. THEA is an out-door phased array system that is able to detect signals from different strong astronomical sources simultaneously (multi-beaming). It consists of sixteen one square meter tiles (arrays) operating in the frequency band of 600-1700MHz. The beamforming for THEA is done at two levels; Radio Frequency (RF) beamforming on every tile (64 elements) and digital beamforming with the sixteen tiles, Smolders (1). First result will be presented in this paper.