Department of Microelectronics
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science

dr.ir. S.A. Brackenhoff

Postdoc
Terahertz Sensing (THZ), Department of Microelectronics

Expertise: Radio-astronomical data analysis and calibration methods

Biography

Stefanie Brackenhoff received a B.Sc. in astronomy from Leiden University (Leiden, the Netherlands) in 2018 and a B.Sc. in electrical engineering from Delft University of Technology (Delft, the Netherlands) in 2019. She completed her M.Sc. in electrical engineering with a specialization in signals and systems at Delft University of Technology in 2021 (cum laude). She completed her PhD at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute of Groningen University in observational cosmology in 2025.

She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Delft University of Technology. Her work focuses on improving the on-sky performance of the DESHIMA on-chip spectrometer, a pioneering instrument for high-redshift galaxy observations in the 220–440 GHz range. Her research interests lie in astronomical data analysis and calibration methods (in both interferometric arrays and single-dish telescopes), and include signal-processing methods and algorithm design for improved sensitivity and atmospheric noise removal, and end-to-end simulations of radio and submm instrument performance.

Publications

  1. The impact of lunar topography on the 21-cm power spectrum for grid-based arrays : Insights for the Dark-ages EXplorer (DEX)
    S. Ghosh; L. V. E. Koopmans; C. Brinkerink; A. R. Offringa; A. J. Boonstra; S.A. Brackenhoff; E. Ceccotti; J. K. Chege; L. Y. Gao; B. K. Gehlot; L. I. Gurvits; C. Höfer; F. G. Mertens; M. Mevius; S. Munshi; A. Saxena; J. A. Tauber; H. Vedantham; S. Yatawatta; S. Zaroubi;
    Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
    January 2026. DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stag116

  2. Galaxy observations with DESHIMA 2.0
    Brackenhoff, S.; Endo, A.; Karatsu, K.; Kohno, K.; Moerman, A.; Rybak, M.; Bakx, T.; Buijtendorp, B.; Cray, S.; Dabironezare, S.; de Keijzer, N.; Marting, L.; Nikolopoulou, R.; Olde Scholtenhuis, L.; Pascual Laguna, A.; Peters, M.; Rowland, L.; Steenvoorde, F.; Thoen, D.; Vollebregt, S.; van der Werf, P.; Wernicke, D.; Yates, S.; Baselmans, J. et al.;
    In SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation,
    Copenhagen, Denmark, Jul. 2026.

  3. Data processing and calibration pipeline for DESHIMA 2.0 observations on the ASTE telescope
    Fujita, S.; Karatsu, K.; Ikeda, S.; Taniguchi, A.; Endo, A.; Takekoshi, T.; Nishimura, Y.; Kohno, K.; Brackenhoff, S.; Moerman, A.; Yamanaka, J.; Tamura, Y.;
    In SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation,
    Copenhagen, Denmark, Jul. 2026.

  4. GPU-accelerated observational forecasting of superconducting (sub)millimeter integral field units with GATEAU
    Moerman, A.; Soshnin, N.; Brackenhoff, S.; Karatsu, K.; Marting, L.; de Rooij, S.; Brandl, B.; Endo, A.;
    In SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation,
    Copenhagen, Denmark, Jul. 2026.

  5. Wideband (sub)millimeter observations of the galaxy cluster RX J1347.5-1145 with DESHIMA 2.0
    Moerman, A.; Endo, A.; Brackenhoff, S.; Karatsu, K.; Rybak, M.; Bakx, T.; Buijtendorp, B.; Cray, S.; Dabironezare, S.; Huiting, R.; de Keijzer, N.; Marting, L.; Nikolopoulou, R.; Olde Scholtenhuis, L.; Pascual Laguna, A.; Peters, M.; Rowland, L.; Steenvoorde, F.; Thoen, D.; Thums, H.; Vollebregt, S.; van der Werf, P.; Yates, S.; Baselmans, J. et al.;
    In SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation,
    Copenhagen, Denmark, Jul. 2026.

  6. Development of TIFUUN: terahertz integral field units with universal nanotechnology
    Akira Endo; Tom JLC Bakx; Jochem JA Baselmans; Dries Boleij; Stefanie A Brackenhoff; Bernhard R Brandl; Martino Calvo; Shahab O Dabironezare; Hans van der Does; Rei Enokiya; Sho Fujisawa; Shinji Fujita; Enrico Garaldi; Wouter Gregoor; Masato Hagimoto; Davit Hakobyan; Angelina Harke-Hosemann; Robert Huiting; Shiro Ikeda; Reinier MJ Janssen; Kenichi Karatsu; Nick de Keijzer; Kotaro Kohno; Takumi Kojima; Alkistis Kyriakidou; Louis H Ma;
    In Proc. SPIE 14156, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy XIII,
    2026. DOI: 10.1117/12.3102022

  7. Wideband (sub) millimeter observations of the galaxy cluster RX J1347. 5-1145 with DESHIMA 2.0
    Arend Moerman; Akira Endo; Stefanie Brackenhoff; Shinji Fujita; Shiro Ikeda; Kenichi Karatsu; Kotaro Kohno; Yuri Nishimura; Matus Rybak; Tatsuya Takekoshi; Yoichi Tamura; Akio Taniguchi; Javier Aguilera; Hiroki Akamatsu; Tom Bakx; Bruno Buijtendorp; Scott Cray; Shahab Dabironezare; Yasunori Fujii; Sho Fujisawa; Kazuyuki Fujita; Masato Hagimoto; Shaul Hanany; Shunsuke Honda; Shuji Hotta; Robert Huiting; Takahiro Iino; Chihiro I;
    In Proc. SPIE 14156, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy XIII,
    2026. DOI: 10.1117/12.3103439

  8. Galaxy observations with DESHIMA 2.0
    Stefanie A Brackenhoff; Akira Endo; Shinji Fujita; Shiro Ikeda; Kenichi Karatsu; Kotaro Kohno; Arend Moerman; Yuri Nishimura; Matus Rybak; Tatsuya Takekoshi; Yoichi Tamura; Akio Taniguchi; Javier Aguilera; Hiroki Akamatsu; Tom JLC Bakx; Bruno T Buijtendorp; Scott Cray; Shahab Dabironezare; Yasunori Fujii; Sho Fujisawa; Kazuyuki Fujita; Masato Hagimoto; Shaul Hanany; Shunsuke Honda; Shuji Hotta; Robert Huiting; Takahiro Iino; C;
    In Proc. SPIE 14156, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy XIII,
    2026. DOI: 10.1117/12.3102998

  9. Development of TIFUUN: terahertz integral field units with universal nanotechnology
    Endo, A.; Bakx, T.; Baselmans, J.; Boleij, D.; Brackenhoff, S. A.; Brandl, B. R.; Calvo, M.; Dabironezare, S. O.; van der Does, H.; Karatsu, K.; Marting, L. H.; Moerman, A.; Olde Scholtenhuis, L.; Oude Essink, T.; Piek, J.; Rybak, M.; Soshnin, N. A.; Thoen, D. J.; Vollebregt, S.; Wang, L.; van der Werf, P.; Yates, S. C.; Yoshida, N.; Zhang, Silvia; et al.;
    In Proc. SPIE 14156, Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy XIII,
    pp. 1415606, Aug. 2026. DOI: doi.org/10.1117/12.3102022

  10. Robust direction-dependent gain-calibration of beam-modelling errors far from the target field
    S. A. Brackenhoff; A. R. Offringa; M. Mevius; L. V. E. Koopmans; J. K. Chege; E. Ceccotti; C. Höfer; L. Gao; S. Ghosh; F. G. Mertens; S. Munshi;
    Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
    Volume 541, Issue 4, Aug. 2025. DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staf1206

  11. Extracting the Epoch of Reionization Signal with 3D U-Net Neural Networks Using a Data-driven Systematic Effect Model
    Li-Yang Gao; Léon V. E. Koopmans; Florent G. Mertens; Satyapan Munshi; Yichao Li; Stefanie A. Brackenhoff; Emilio Ceccotti; J. Kariuki Chege; Anshuman Acharya; Raghunath Ghara; Sambit K. Giri; Ilian T. Iliev; Garrelt Mellema; Xin Zhang;
    The Astrophysical Journal,
    Volume 988, Issue 1, pp. 84 (1-17), Jul. 2025. DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ade2dc

  12. Deeper multi-redshift upper limits on the epoch of reionisation 21 cm signal power spectrum from LOFAR between z = 8.3 and z = 10.1
    F. G. Mertens; M. Mevius; L. V. E. Koopmans; A. R. Offringa; S. Zaroubi; A. Acharya; S. A. Brackenhoff; E. Ceccotti; E. Chapman; K. Chege; B. Ciardi; R. Ghara; S. Ghosh; S. K. Giri; I. Hothi; C. Höfer; I. T. Iliev; V. Jelić; Q. Ma; G. Mellema; S. Munshi; V. N. Pandey andS. Yatawatta;
    Astronomy and Astrophysics,
    Volume 698, Issue A186, pp. 1-32, May 2025. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202554763

  13. Near-field imaging of local interference in radio interferometric data
    S. Munshi; F. G. Mertens; L. V. E. Koopmans; M. Mevius; A. R. Offringa; B. Semelin; C. Viou; A. Bracco; S. A. Brackenhoff; E. Ceccotti; J. K. Chege; A. Fialkov; L. Y. Gao; R. Ghara; S. Ghosh; A. K. Shaw; P. Zarka; S. Zaroubi; B. Cecconi; S. Corbel; J. N. Girard; J. M. Grießmeier; O. Konovalenko; A. Loh; P. Tokarsky; O. Ulyanov; V. Zakharenko;
    Astronomy and Astrophysics,
    Volume 697, Issue A203, pp. 1-19, May 2025. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202554763

  14. Spectral modelling of Cygnus A between 110 and 250 MHz. Impact on the LOFAR 21-cm signal power spectrum
    E. Ceccotti; A. R. Offringa; L. V. E. Koopmans; F. G. Mertens; M. Mevius; A. Acharya; S. A. Brackenhoff; B. Ciardi; B. K. Gehlot; R. Ghara; J. K. Chege; S. Ghosh; C. Höfer; I. Hothi; I. T. Iliev; J. P. McKean; S. Munshi; S. Zaroubi;
    Astronomy and Astrophysics,
    Volume 696, Issue A56, pp. 1-22, Apr. 2025. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202453106

  15. Beyond the horizon: Quantifying the full sky foreground wedge in the cylindrical power spectrum
    S. Munshi; F. G. Mertens; L. V. E. Koopmans; A. R. Offringa; E. Ceccotti; S. A. Brackenhoff; J. K. Chege; B. K. Gehlot; S. Ghosh; C. Höfer; M. Mevius;
    Astronomy and Astrophysics,
    Volume 693, Issue A276, pp. 1-20, Jan. 2025. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202451181

  16. Constraints on the state of the intergalactic medium at z∼8 − 10 using redshifted 21 cm observations with LOFAR
    R. Ghara; S. Zaroubi; B. Ciardi; G. Mellema; S. K. Giri; F. G. Mertens; M. Mevius; L. V. E. Koopmans; I. T. Iliev; A. Acharya; S. A. Brackenhoff; E. Ceccotti; K. Chege; I. Georgiev; S. Ghosh; I. Hothi; C. Höfer; Q. Ma; S. Munshi; A. R. Offringa; A. K. Shaw; V. N. Pandey; S. Yatawatta; M. Choudhury;
    Astronomy and Astrophysics,
    Volume 699, Jul. 2025. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202554163

  17. Improved upper limits on the 21-cm signal power spectrum at z = 17.0 and z = 20.3 from an optimal field observed with NenuFAR
    S. Munshi; F. G. Mertens; J. K. Chege; L. V. E. Koopmans; A. R. Offringa; B. Semelin; R. Barkana; J. Dhandha; A. Fialkov; R. Mériot; S. Sikder; A. Bracco; S. A. Brackenhoff; E. Ceccotti; R. Ghara; S. Ghosh; I. Hothi; M. Mevius; P. Ocvirk; A. K. Shaw; S. Yatawatta; P. Zarka;
    Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
    Volume 542, Issue 4, pp. 2785–2807, Oct. 2025. DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staf1386

  18. First upper limits on the 21-cm signal power spectrum of neutral hydrogen at z = 9.16 from the LOFAR 3C 196 field
    E. Ceccotti; A. R. Offringa; F. G. Mertens; L. V. E. Koopmans; S. Munshi; J. K. Chege; A. Acharya; S.A. Brackenhoff; E. Chapman; B. Ciardi; R. Ghara; S. Ghosh; S. K. Giri; C. Höfer; I. Hothi; G. Mellema; M. Mevius; V. N. Pandey; S. Zaroubi;
    Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
    Volume 544, pp. 1255–1283, Nov. 2025. DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staf1629

  19. The impact of diffuse Galactic emission on direction-independent gain calibration in high-redshift 21 cm observations
    C. Höfer1; L. V. E. Koopmans; S.A. Brackenhoff; E. Ceccotti1; K. Chege; S. Ghosh; F. G. Mertens; M. Mevius; S. Munshi; A. R. Offringa;
    Astronomy & Astrophysics,
    Volume 704, Issue A117, pp. 19, Dec. 2025. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202554993

  20. Mitigating incoherent excess variance in high-redshift 21 cm observations with multi-output cross-Gaussian process regression
    S. Munshi1; L. V. E. Koopmans; F. G. Mertens; A. R. Offringa; S.A. Brackenhoff; E. Ceccotti; J. K. Chege1; L. Y. Gao; S. Ghosh; M. Mevius; S. Zaroubi;
    Astronomy & Astrophysics,
    Volume 704, Issue A205, pp. 15, Dec. 2025. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202556785

  21. The impact of lossy data compression on the power spectrum of the high-redshift 21 cm signal with LOFAR
    J. K. Chege; L. V. E. Koopmans; A. R. Offringa; B. K. Gehlot; S. A. Brackenhoff; E. Ceccotti; S. Ghosh; C. Höfer; F. G. Mertens; M. Mevius; S. Munshi;
    Astronomy and Astrophysics,
    Volume 692, Issue A211, pp. 1-11, Dec. 2024. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202451367

  22. Ionospheric contributions to the excess power in high-redshift 21-cm power-spectrum observations with LOFAR
    S. A. Brackenhoff; M. Mevius; L. V. E. Koopmans; A. Offringa; E. Ceccotti; J. K. Chege; B. K. Gehlot; S. Ghosh; C. Höfer; F. G. Mertens; S. Munshi; S. Zaroubi;
    Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical,
    Volume 533, Issue 1, pp. 632–656, Sept. 2024. DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stae1856

  23. Transient RFI environment of LOFAR-LBA at 72–75 MHz. Impact on ultra-widefield AARTFAAC Cosmic Explorer observations of the redshifted 21-cm signal
    B. K. Gehlot; L. V. E. Koopmans; S. A. Brackenhoff; E. Ceccotti; S. Ghosh; C. Höfer; F. G. Mertens; M. Mevius; S. Munshi; A. R. Offringa; V. N. Pandey; A. Rowlinson; A. Shulevski; R. A. M. J. Wijers; S. Yatawatta; S. Zaroubi;
    Astronomy and Astrophysics,
    Volume 681, Issue A71, pp. 1-13, Jan. 2024. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202346376

  24. First upper limits on the 21 cm signal power spectrum from cosmic dawn from one night of observations with NenuFAR
    S. Munshi; F. G. Mertens; L. V. E. Koopmans; A. R. Offringa; B. Semelin; D. Aubert; R. Barkana; A. Bracco; S. A. Brackenhoff; B. Cecconi; E. Ceccotti and, S. Corbel; A. Fialkov; B. K. Gehlot; R. Ghara; J. N. Girard; J. M. Grießmeier; C. Höfer; I. Hothi; R. Mériot; M. Mevius; P. Ocvirk; A. K. Shaw; G. Theureau; S. Yatawatta; P. Zarka; S. Zaroubi;
    Astronomy and Astrophysics,
    Volume 681, Jan. 2024. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202348329

  25. A novel radio imaging method for physical spectral index modelling
    E. Ceccotti; A. R. Offringa; L. V. E. Koopmans; R. Timmerman; S. A. Brackenhoff; B. K. Gehlot; F. G. Mertens; S. Munshi; V. N. Pandey; R. J. van Weeren; S. Yatawatta; S. Zaroubi;
    Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society,
    Volume 525, Issue 3, pp. 3946–3962, Nov. 2023. DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stad2465

  26. TiEMPO: open-source time-dependent end-to-end model for simulating ground-based submillimeter astronomical observations
    Huijten, E.; Roelvink, Y.; Brackenhoff, S. A.; Taniguchi, A.; Bakx, T. J. L. C.; Marthi, K. B.; Zaalberg, S.; Doing A.-K.; Baselmans, J. J. A.; Chin, K. W.; Huiting, R.; Karatsu, K.; Pascual Laguna, A.; Tamura, Y.; Takekoshi, T.; Yates, S. J. C.; van Hoven, M.; Endo, A.;
    J. of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments and systems,
    Volume 8, Issue 2, 2022. DOI: 10.1117/1.JATIS.8.2.028005

  27. DESHIMA 2.0: Development of an Integrated Superconducting Spectrometer for Science Grade Astronomical Observations
    A Taniguchi; T Bakx; J Baselmans; R Huiting; K Karatsu; N Llombart; M Rybak; T Takekoshi; Y Tamura; H Akamatsu; S Brackenhoff; J Bueno; B Buijtendorp; S Dabironezare; AK Doing; Y Fujii; K Fujita; M Gouwerok; S Hähnle; T Ishida; S Ishii; R Kawabe; T Kitayama; K Kohno; A Kouchi; J Maekawa; K Matsuda; V Murugesan; S Nakatsubo; T Oshima; A Pascual Laguna; D Thoen; P vd Werf; S Yates; A Endo;
    Journal of Low Temperature Physics,
    Volume 209, pp. 278-286, Nov. 2022. DOI: 10.1007/s10909-022-02888-5

  28. Detection of polarization neutral points in observations of the combined corona and sky during the 21 August 2017 total solar eclipse
    Frans Snik; Steven P. Bos; Stefanie A. Brackenhoff; David S. Doelman; Emiel H. Por; Felix Bettonvil; Michiel Rodenhuis; Dmitry Vorobiev; Laura M. Eshelman; Joseph A. Shaw;
    Appl. Opt.,
    Volume 59, pp. F71-F77, 2020. DOI: 10.1364/AO.391814

  29. TiEMPO: Open-Source Time-Dependent End-to-End Model for Simulating Ground-Based Submillimeter Astronomical Observations
    E. Huijten; Y. Roelvink; S.A. Brackenhoff; A. Taniguchi; T.J.L.C. Bakx; K.B. Marthi; S. Zaalberg; J.J.A. Baselmans; K.W. Chin; R. Huiting; K. Karatsu; Pascual Laguna, A. ; Y. Tamura; T. Takekoshi; S.J.C. Yates; M. van Hoven; A. Endo;
    In Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy X,
    SPIE, International Society for Optics and Photonics, pp. 562 - 581, Dec. 13 2020. DOI: 10.1117/12.2561014

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Last updated: 2 Feb 2026

Stefanie Brackenhoff

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