CHORD Instrumentation

CHORD

The Canadian Hydrogen Observatory and Radio transient Detector (CHORD) is a new radio telescope facility, incorporating the latest advances in dish fabrication, low-noise electronics, and digital signal processing. Using bandwidth × field of view × sensitivity as a figure of merit, CHORD will be an order of magnitude more powerful than its predecessor CHIME, and be the world-leading facility of its type.

Enabling Technologies

Composite Dishes

Large and precise collecting area is made possible by composite technology pioneered at Canada's National Research Council (NRC). CHORD will feature 512 × 6m dishes in a central array, with 64-dish outrigger arrays at two remote sites.

Ultra-Wideband Feeds

Custom designed receivers matched to ambient temperature, ultra-low-noise amplifiers will deliver <30 K system temperature across a 5:1 bandwidth (300-1500 MHz).

Advances in Digital Signal Processing

The CHORD FX correlator will harness state of the art network and compute technologies for a powerful and flexible real-time digital backend. (CHIME X-engine pictured above)