Five images next to one another.

Electronics Division

Welcome to the Electronics Division of the MPIfR.

The division was founded with the primary responsibility for the operation, maintenance and continuous improvement of the astronomical radio receiver systems for the 100 m radio telescope at Effelsberg. Over the past 50 years, the scope of the division's activities has broadened considerably and today it is heavily involved in new and established observatories around the world, with a continued focus on the associated astronomical radio receiver systems.

Furthermore, the division has integrated expertise in all aspects of astronomical radio receivers, from passive analogue RF design, active RF components (such as low noise amplifiers, LNAs), mechanical and cryogenic design, analogue and digital control, digitisation and high-performance data transfer, and computing (GPU and FPGA based).

The department is divided into five groups, which cover all the necessary expertise while remaining closely interlinked on projects and technological developments:

  • Systems Operation Group
  • Receiver Systems Group
  • Technology Group
  • Project Group
  • Backend Development Group

 

A cross-section of a three-band receiver is in the middle of the frame. There is a circle to the left with the letters K, Q and W inside. An arrow points towards the receiver. From the receiver, three arrows point towards three separate circles on the right. A red circle has the letter K inside, a green circle has the letter Q inside and a blue circle has the letter W inside.

VLBI 3-band Receiver

A novel design for a three-band VLBI receiver with unmatched sensitivity.

Four cartoony telescope antennas with a clock symbol below the dish. In the middle between them is a large clock that is connected to the four antennas with red wire.

TFR – Time and Frequency Reference

Distributing time and frequency over long distances while providing an option that compensates for offsets.

A highly intricate tree structure diagram.

The EDGAR Cluster

The next generation of high-throughput, flexible compute infrastructure supporting both real-time and offline data analysis.

On the left, a design of a receiver is shown. An arrow to the right leads to the built receiver. Another arrow in turn leads to 66 receivers. Below, a cross-section of the receiver and two graphs can be seen.

MeerKAT Band 5b Receiver

66 receivers in only 18 months.

A view of a large row of server racks extending down a long corridor.

MeerKAT Backends

4 instruments for the MeerKAT digital backend.

A rectangular gold-coloured device with a port at the front. The MPIfR logo is engraved on the side. A number of screws and openings for screws can be seen all over the device. At the back, there is an engraving saying "out" on the left and an engraving saying "in" on the right.

ALMA Band 2 LNA

145 LNAs for ALMA Band 2.

Team

Team

All members of our 5 groups together in one place.
4 interlocking puzzle pieces surround a black circle with "Systems Operation" written inside. Clockwise, the puzzle pieces say: "Embedded Systems", "Digital Infrastructure", "Receiver Systems", "Monitoring Control". The pieces are yellow, green, red and blue.

Systems Operation

Integration, operation, asset-tracking, digitization and more.
Receiver Systems

Receiver Systems

Developing astronomical receiver systems worldwide.
Technology Group

Technology Group

Development and production of receiver subsystems at MPIfR.
Project Group

Project Group

Providing the knowledge base and design guidelines for the design of larger receiver projects.
Backend Development

Backend Development

Designing and developing advanced backend hardware and software systems that power radio telescopes worldwide.
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