The ALMA20230 Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade (WSU) - Status Update

ALMA has been producing ground-breaking science since it became operative in 2011. The ALMA Development Roadmap was released in 2018 to prioritize the development necessary to significantly expand ALMA's capabilities and enable it to produce even more exciting science in the coming decades. The ALMA2030 Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade (WSU) is the top priority initiative for the Development Roadmap. The WSU will initially double, and eventually quadruple, ALMA's system instantaneous bandwidth and deliver improved sensitivity by upgrading the receivers, digital electronics, and correlator. The WSU will afford significant improvements for every future ALMA observation, whether it is focused on continuum or spectral line science. The improved sensitivity and spectral tuning grasp will open new avenues of exploration, increase sample sizes, and enable more efficient observations. The WSU is now well underway with key subsystem under development, including new receivers, digitizers, data transmission system and correlator. In parallel, the observatory is advancing the detailed planning towards implementation through a careful project management and systems engineering approach, based on an integrated Conceptual System Design which outlines the hardware, software / computing and science operations aspects of the upgrade. The substantial gains in the observing efficiency enabled by the WSU will further enhance ALMA as the world leading facility for millimeter/submillimeter astronomy.