page_title: AMiBA
section_title: Design
hierarchical_section_title: AMiBA / Design
caption_attribution_description: English: AMiBA, a Cosmic Microwave Background experiment located in Hawaii, during construction in June 2006. The Moon is in the background.
context_page_description: The Yuan-Tseh Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy, also known as the Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy, is a radio telescope designed to observe the cosmic microwave background and the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in clusters of galaxies.
  After completion of the SZE campaigns, the telescope has been repurposed to study the evolution of molecular gas throughout the history of the Universe. It is now referred to as the Yuan-Tseh Lee Array.
  It is located on Mauna Loa in Hawaii, at 3,396 metres above sea level.
  AMiBA was originally configured as a 7-element interferometer atop a hexapod mount. Observations at a wavelength of 3 mm started in October 2006, and the detections of six clusters by the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect were announced in 2008. In 2009 the telescope was upgraded to 13 elements, and it is capable of further expansion to 19 elements. AMiBA is the result of a collaboration between the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, the National Taiwan University and the Australia Telescope National Facility, and also involves researchers from other universities.
context_section_description: AMiBA was initially configured as a 7-element interferometer, using 0.576 m Cassegrain dishes mounted on a 6 m carbon fibre hexapod mount. It is located on Mauna Loa, Hawaii, and observes at 3 mm (86–102 GHz) to minimize foreground emission from other, non-thermal sources. The telescope has a retractable shelter, made from seven steel trusses and PVC fabric.
  The receivers are based on monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) technology, with low noise amplifiers cooled to 15 K, which have 20 GHz bandwidths and provide 46 dB of amplification. The signals are mixed with a local oscillator to reduce their frequency, prior to correlation with an analog correlator. The system temperatures are between 55 and 75 K.
  AMiBA started in 2000, with funding for 4 years from the Cosmology and Particle Astrophysics Project of the Taiwan Ministry of Education. A 2-element prototype was set up on Mauna Loa in 2002. Further funding for a second 4 years was provided by the National Science Council. The mount arrived on site in 2004, and the platform was installed in 2005. The first 7 elements were then installed ("AMiBA7"), and the telescope's first light was in September 2006, observing Jupiter. The telescope was dedicated in October 2006 to Yuan-Tseh Lee. The array was upgraded to have thirteen 1.2 m dishes in 2009 ("AMiBA13").  After extensive testing and calibration, scientific observations resumed in 2011.  It is further expandable up to 19 elements.
caption: The rear of the hexapod mount
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