Design of a 96 Element FX Correlator for the LOFAR-UK Station

A design for a 96 dual polarization FX correlator is under development for the LOFAR-UK station at the Chilbolton Observatory in the United Kingdom. This instrument will compute the auto and cross correlations of all 192 signal paths over 25 MHz of the LOFAR HBA band. The correlation products will form the basis of imaging the full sky overhead the LOFAR station on timescales of ~100 ms in a search for fast radio transients. Using the FPGA based boards developed by various groups in the radio astronomy community we can significantly speed up the development time of this instrument. With a modification to the current LOFAR firmware it will be possible for commensal operation of this single station, full sky correlator with the normal operation of the international LOFAR array.