Chair: K.Y. Lo
Participants: B. Martin, J. Peterson (USA); M. Kesteven, W. Wilson (ATNF, Sydney); H. C. Lu, M.T.Chen, T.H. Chu, T.D. Chiueh, Y. J. Hwang, W. Ho, P. Shaw ( Taipei) T.H. Chiueh & Science Team (Taipei) – partial time

1. Progress & status report summary:

   1) Prototype Correlator– summarized by Warwick
- front-end
Jeff Peterson Plan C - Lag correlator modules available mid October.
Expecting delivery to ATNF in mid November.
- output-end
To mid September - further testing of NTU CMOS chip to determine whether OK for prototype.If OK, proceed with integration. If not OK, develop discrete version for prototype - 2 months development.
- integration & test.
Parts are being ordered now for the prototype correlator. in 8 weeks - mid October. Lag correlators available mid November.Requires IF amplifiers from ASIAA at this time.Integration and testing - 6 weeks.Complete unit ready for shipping to Taipei/Hilo- in end of December.

  2).InP HEMT LNA –updated by Huei
Huei mentioned for MMIC the most important thing is to get the InP HEMT MMIC foundry signed through RCUH. The immediate action will be to get the UMass contract for us as the base tosign our new contract. After that we can then layout a clearer schedule for this task. He wish Bob and Jeff will try very hard to get hold of Neal Erickson.Fred has sent an e-mail to the head of TRW foundry service organization. Hope the conversation can be started smoothly and enhance the relationshipwith TRW.

  3).Receiver - summarized by Mingtang
- layout design & fabrication
most of dewar design is finished, fabrication is underway. Prototype assembly will start by early Sep.
- RF cold / in charged by Mingtang, Eugene
key components status:
isolator: ok
LNA: four MIC LNA from NRAO are in the lab.
feed horn & wave guide: delivery in Sep.
noise coupler or phase shifter, transition: delivery date needed to be confirmed by ATNF.
OMT: first batch of three got delivered to NRAO, test is underway. Possible two more from the same batch would be delivered to us, depending on the test result. CIS is making OMT for us; we would know the preliminary in a couple weeks.
*** all agreed we need to use the noise coupler in any case, as for prototype stage we will use the noise coupler only.
- RF Warm / in charge by Leo
key components status:
high pass filter: delivered
sub-harmonic mixers: packaging & testing at ATNF
equalizer: under construction by Prof. Chu’s team
IF amplifier: specs have not been confirmed yet
post amplifier: 3 pcs of Spacek amplifiers already in our lab, but we need one piece more
- electrical / in charge by Joshua, Homin
cabling and wiring in the cold dewar are defined, but the power distribution for entire the prototype receiver in not yet defined.
- electronics / in charge by Homin
data acquisition, distribution and system monitoring are still primitive

   4).LO – updated by T.H. Chu & Leo
as for the prototype, we decided to go with the conventional LO system.
- key components status:
42 KHz LO amplifiers: delivered
tripler: 2 pcs delivered, under testing.
Isolator, transmission, switch, wave guide & coupler: all delivered
phase lock source & power divider: under construction by Prof. Chu's team
DRO: upgrading from 7GHx to 21 GHz, and need purchasing more components
- block diagram: revised version 2.0 released

  5).IF – updated by T.H. Chu
as for the prototype, no need to use the equalizer, only cable and connectors are required. T.H. will work out the specification and purchase them accordingly. It need 2 to 3 weeks to fabricate equalizer, T.H. will place a order for fabrication next week. If it is not work, he will use the alumina substrate as a back-up plan. We need to add one amplifier before correlator in order to get enough input power. Leo is preparing the power budget, and trying to figure out what kind of amplifier is suitable with correlator, and how many we need, where to fit in. He will discuss these with Warwick right after this meeting.

  6).Platform, mount & dishes – updated by Bob
2 small dishes are still under construction; Contracting for platform & mount fabrication has been held for a while, we need to figure out the size first

  7). Site acquisition – updated by Bob
Bob did talk with Gilbert at the end of last week, after the email exchanges.He thought RCUH is very flexible at this end. Bob will outline a proposal for operation andthen Gilbert would help refine it. They will also discuss how to use their on-linebudgeting system to track the project better. Bob will generate operations plans when he gets back to Hilo in early Sep.

  8).computing for prototype – summarized by Mike
- The correlator operation software- prepared by Warwick
The correlator will be able to operate in a stand-alone mode, collecting spectra at regular intervals, displaying the data and archiving it. The correlator will also provide a socket server to which the observer's interface will connect.
- The clock.
This is required by the correlator, and will be included as part of the correlator.
- The receiver monitoring
Interface cards to the receiver test points will be provided by the ATNF - and should be available by mid-September. Software to communicate with the hardware ("dataset driver") will operate in the correlator PC, and will be provided by the ATNF. Code for this purpose currently is in use with the ATNF.
Test and monitor software to read/monitor the receiver hardware through the interface cards has been developed by the ATNF receiver group, and has been copied to Taiwan. Work will be required to integrate this package.
- The Observer Interface.
Plan A is to use the standard AT user interface (which runs on a SUN workstation). Consideration is being given to a linux version - which could be ready early next year .. Plan B.
- Calibration software and data analysis
Mike and Ravi are generating a package to prepare the data come up with the telescope, and to pass through the analysis processing package to these data. Bob Sorter will modify the existing software for AMiBA purpose. Mike thought they could work out something to try in a couple of months. As for the data analysis, Uei-Li and King Wang are working on the data reduction -extraction of the power spectrum.

  9).Budget & expenditure – summarized by P.Shaw
Good control in budgeting and purchasing, but the expenditure flow was less than we expected. In other word, we are slow in progress.

  10). Time schedule :
To get all of the a.m.work package modules ready and to start integrating the whole prototype modules by the end of this year, it looks promising.
Deliverable schedule:
Correlator: end of 2001
RF: end Oct.2001
Conventional LO: Nov. 2001
IF: end Oct. 2001; amplifier plus equalizer/ end of 2001
Small dishes: Oct
Platform & mount: within one year after defining the size
Computing control: end of 2001

2. Action items:

  1).We decided to order two units of the 16 elements of lag correlator from Meridian Microwave LLC. Delivery in 8 weeks aro. For sorting out the details, Bob and Paul will discuss further right after this meeting.
   2).Jeff will contact Neal Erickson to see if he can provide a copy of UMass contract to TRW.
   3). Mingtang will figure out the noise rejection and order more components for up-grading the DRO from 7 GHz to 21 GHz.
   4). Leo will figure out the specs of IF amplifier with Warwick asap, and come up with a plan by next week.
   5). Mike will work out a phase plan quickly in order to give us some scenes of what possibility we are facing.
   6). Bob will figure out the cost for preparing the site, and try to finalize the MOU asap.
   7). Mike will organize the data analysis-processing package in a couple of months.