Elemaster Group is proud to play a pivotal role in the SKAO (Square Kilometre Array Observatory) project, one of the most ambitious scientific endeavours of the 21st century. Bringing together more than 100 organisations from around 20 countries, this initiative is revolutionising radio astronomy by constructing the world’s largest and most advanced radio telescope ever.
At the heart of this effort, Elemaster is contributing to the Signal Processing Subsystem (SPS) for SKA-Low, the low-frequency telescope in Australia. With 131,072 antennas scanning the sky 135 times faster than current systems, this facility will allow scientists to explore the early universe, uncovering the formation of the first galaxies. Elemaster’s work focuses on industrializing advanced technologies, transforming years of research into ready-to-use products.
The impact of this groundbreaking project is already tangible. The first image obtained with data from SKA-Low has been published, revealing a portion of the sky equivalent to 100 full moons, containing over 85 of the brightest galaxies known in that region—each with a supermassive black hole at its centre. This image, captured using only 1.024 of the 131.072 antennas planned, provides a first glimpse of the scientific revelations SKA will soon make possible.
“As part of the SKA project, Elemaster has taken over the 20 years of work done by INAF (National Institute of Astrophysics), led by Jader Monari, on the reception part and by Sanitas eg (start-up in Milan) on the data processing part of 131.072 antennas, transforming it into industrialised products undergoing validation (already in pre-production today). This is an interdisciplinary telecommunications project at the limit of available technology, characterised by very high speed and synchronisation of signal sampling—800 MHz for each of the 262.144 channels (800 million times per second) on optical fibre, generating an unprecedented amount of data. To test the EMC part of the Antenna Receivers, we had to go to Sweden, home to one of only two laboratories in the world capable of meeting the project’s stringent requirements. To support the engineering activities, where the Eletech team—the Group’s R&D division, led by Marco Arrigoni, system engineer and technical leader of the SKAO project—is managing more than 300 functional requirements and more than 400 different interface requirements, we have set up a Laboratory at our new Headquarters in Osnago, where we simulate a telescope station (RPF) with reference and synchronisation of state-of-the-art systems. We are, of course, really proud to be a partner of SKA and to collaborate with INAF in this stimulating and exciting venture.”, said Gualtiero Magni, Elemaster Group CTO.
Elemaster’s expertise in ODM and EMS solutions is key to transforming scientific research into industrialised products. With its cutting-edge hardware and software, the Group is delivering high-performance electronic systems to digitise, process, and transmit the vast data generated by SKA-Low, ensuring seamless integration with the telescope’s supercomputing infrastructure.