Abstract

Next-generation radio astronomy will be led by the SKA telescope. The ambitious objectives of the SKA will be only possible if the required technology can be realised within the budget. Components include: antennas, amplifiers, communications, power supply, processing technologies, etc. It is a long list of state-of-the-art technology which needs to become real within the next few years. The SKA aims for ultra-wideband arrays to cover the sub 1 GHz frequency band. They need to be ultra-wideband among other reasons in order to reduce the cost of the system. However, the realisation of ultra-wideband low-cost low-frequency arrays is not free of difficulties. In this talk I focus on the analysis of these issues and its solutions and the design of ultra-wideband arrays fulfilling the SKA requirements. The array designs presented could be divided in two according to the frequency band they intend to cover; arrays for the high frequency band of the SKA aperture array proposal (SKA-AAhi: 0.3 to 1GHz) and arrays for the low frequency band (SKA-AAlo: 0.07 to 0.45 GHz).