The Design and Implementation of a Low Frequence Radio Antenna Array Digital Terminal

Since the astronomical observation took its step into the era of full-wave observations, the low frequency radio signal of full-wave observation has become a new yet important band for observation It also provides a new path for research. Radio information in this band plays an important role in the study of solar and other planets' radio burst, yet related researches in this area are almost in a blank state. Therefore, some countries in Europe and America as well as China have already started to do some related researches. Yunnan Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has launched this project. Now there are four low frequency radio antennas can be used in this project. The low-frequency radio antenna array can be used cooperatively with the ten-meter solar radio telescope and the eleven-meter solar radio telescope, which are already in service in Yunnan Observatories. Together they can accurately observe the radio information of the Sun and other planets. Of this design, A/D card firstly receives the low frequency astronomical signal from the low frequency radio antenna; then the A/D card passes the converted digital signals to the FPGA card by the form of differential signal; FPGA integrates and processes the data. Besides, FPGA uses a form of asynchronous FIFO clock domain to pass the data to the PC terminal by Gigabit-Ethernet with User Data-gram Protocol; then the software designed by PC terminal window displays the data and the processing of FFT.