Thermal management solutions provider Aavid Thermacore Inc. has designed a cooling system for Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization’s (CSIRO’s) phased array feeds (PAF) radio telescope receivers. Pictured left to right at Aavid Thermacore Europe’s Ashington, England, facility are: Stephen Jacques (Aavid Thermacore), Steve Barker (CSIRO) and David Mullen (Aavid Thermacore). Courtesy of Aavid Thermacore Inc. PAFs form part of CSIRO’s newest radio telescope, the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP). Together with specialized digital systems developed for ASKAP, the phased array feeds create 36 separate and simultaneous beams to give a field of view of 30°2 on the sky. As a result, ASKAP will capture radio images of the sky quickly and with unprecedented detail. It will also allow astronomers to answer fundamental questions about the universe such as the nature of cosmic magnetism and the evolution and formation of galaxies. The PAF is a hermetically sealed electronics package with a total of 188 signal channels, 94 in each of two polarizations. Its engineers needed a thermal management solution for the summer months to ensure efficient performance. Aavid Thermacore developed a solution for CSIRO’s PAF technology and was subsequently engaged to produce the thermal management solution that has been installed on the ASKAP telescope. “We are incredibly grateful to Aavid Thermacore for its support with the ASKAP project,” said Steve Barker, project leader at CSIRO. “Throughout their time working on the project, the staff at Aavid Thermacore continually went above and beyond to provide support and guidance to our engineers on site in Australia.” Aavid Thermacore designs and manufactures a line of engineered thermal management solutions that includes high-performance heat pipe assemblies, vapor chambers, micro-channel and porous metal liquid cold plates, annealed pyrolytic graphite, enclosure heat exchangers, vacuum-brazed assemblies, and refractory metal alloys, among others.