"We have designed antennas that meet the requirements to be used in future radio astronomical receivers such as those used by ALMA," explained Daniel Montofré, a double degree student of the PhD in Astronomical Instrumentation at the University of Chile and the Kapteyn Institute for Astronomy at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
"The equipment will also be cheaper than current technology, so it could have commercial applications such as security cameras capable of seeing through physical objects and very high-speed communication systems," said Rocio Molina, an engineer at the Millimeter Wave Laboratory of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Chile and a researcher at the CATA Astrophysics Center.
Antennas for the future
The design of the antennas took about 14 months. Measurements were carried out in the Netherlands, including highly complex computer simulations, while their construction was developed in Chile.
The project used Band 6 of the millimeter/submillimeter range (211-275 GHz), which is today one of the most important bands of the ALMA radio interferometer.
"With this band, great images of the cosmos have been obtained, such as the first ever capture of a black hole. On the other hand, our European counterpart is working on a new Band 6 receiver. If all goes well, our antennas could be used in such astronomical receivers," concluded Montofré. "In the laboratory we are convinced that innovation is a key factor and we are trying to incorporate it into each of our projects. Today the potential applications are security cameras, but in the not too distant future more could be added, we just need to be patient, since we have the human capital," said Molina.