Radio astronomers at the University of Manchester are building the detector systems and receiver arrays that will equip the next generation of giant telescopes, from the Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope in China to the Square Kilometre Array. The problem is that tomorrow’s most powerful observatories—sited in remote deserts, on high-altitude balloons, or in space—require receiver technology that does not yet exist. Without a dedicated research and development programme to understand the physics of core devices and sub-systems, the UK risks losing access to these instruments. This project assembles a multidisciplinary team of radio astronomers, radio engineers, and semiconductor experts to design and test novel detector arrays across wavelengths from long radio to sub-millimetre. The work is primarily fundamental science: it aims to give astronomers panoramic, multi-frequency views of the sky and precise measurements of individual cosmic objects. Past radio astronomy innovations have won four Nobel Prizes, and the same detector technologies often spin off into industrial applications such as communications, remote sensing, and medical imaging. The programme explicitly links basic research with the wider economy through knowledge transfer, licensing, and spin-out companies.
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Over the last 75 years, radio astronomy has played a leading discovery role in astrophysics and cosmology. On four separate occasions the Nobel Prize has been awarded to radio astronomers. Innovations in technology have been central to this success. The continuous development of novel detector devices, innovative instrument design and their combination has produced instruments capable of panoramic multi-frequency views of the sky and also of very precise measurements of individual objects. Receiver systems of ever-greater scale, complexity and technical sophistication are now demanded and observations will increasingly be carried out on remote desert sites, on very high altitude sites (including balloons) and in space. The world-leading instruments of tomorrow can only be designed in earnest once the physics and characteristics of core devices and sub-systems have been understood. This is the basis of the proposal. To take a lead it is important to anticipate and be proactive. A world-leading technology team must therefore be innovative, multi-skilled and cooperate freely with external partners with complementary talents. There are few institutions well-poised to be in the vanguard, but Manchester is one-as such it can play a leading role in ensuring UK astronomers' access to the next generation of cutting-edge instrumentation. At long wavelengths the dominant telescopes will be Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope in China (with which Manchester has a joint R&D programme) followed by the Square Kilometre Array. Our response for the latter has been to assemble the SKADS team (with Oxford and Cambridge as UK partners and ASTRON as the principal European partner) as a multidisciplinary partnership of radio astronomers, radio engineers and semiconductor device experts. At cm- to sub-mm wavelengths, a multiplicity of instruments will be required and so this proposal involves a coherent technology R&D programme covering both the overall design of astronomically well-motivated types of receiver array, together with the production and testing of devices and sub-systems required to deliver them. The linkage of basic research with the wider economy is now an integral part of the remit of STFC. We share this ethos since industrial links can not only bring in new ideas and expertise but also release funds from knowledge transfer, licensing and spin-offs which can benefit the pure science programme.
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