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Far Field

Error of Antenna Phase Pattern Measured by NFTR and Correction Technique
Xian Zhang, November 2015

Abstract Antenna far field phase pattern is important for some applications. It can be directly obtained in pattern measurement by far field test range (FFTR) or compact range (CR). However, it is found that the antenna far field phase pattern measured by current near field test range (NFTR) is not correct. For a uniform phase feeding plane array, its far field phase pattern should be near constant in 3dB beam width.  However, the antenna phase pattern measured by current NFTR looks square curve vs angle. This paper found out that the root cause of the error is due to different reference planes. Both the amplitude pattern and the phase pattern obtained by current NFTR, in fact, refer to the probe scanner plane, not the antenna plane. This shifting of the reference plane has no effect on amplitude pattern, but has effect on phase pattern. After that, a correction method is proposed. One example is used for the root cause finding and correction technique explanation. According to this paper, if one wants to get phase pattern using NFTR, it is necessary to measure the distance between AUT and probe aperture accurately so as to correct it accurately after measurement and obtain accurate phase pattern.

A New Over-The-Air Radiated Performance Test System for Multiple-Antenna Wireless Devices for End-of-The-Line Testing in Factories
Minh-Chau Huynh, November 2015

End-of-the-line over-the-air (OTA) testing of fully assembled wireless devices is one of the most important tests done in factories. It is designed to detect defective devices to avoid them being shipped out to the end customers. There are many requirements in designing over-the-air test systems for factory testing, including small factory real estate, measurement repeatability, and fast test time. These requirements prompt to challenges in OTA test system designs. Few existing widely-used test systems exist: near-field coupling systems where the test antenna is located very near the device’s antenna under test, small TEM cells, and shielded enclosures with one or several test antennas. Each technology has advantages and disadvantages, such as system size, defect detection capabilities/limitations, and performance measurement correlation to that from a far-field method. However, they all lack in dealing with improving test time with devices having technologies working with multiple simultaneous antennas/streams. For example, the current test time for a 2-antenna device (MIMO or received diversity capable devices) is doubled because each antenna chain is tested sequentially. Furthermore, possible coupling effect between antennas is not typically tested. The newly proposed OTA test system is an adaptive system with an array of test antenna elements inside a shielded enclosure. It takes advantage of the multi-path environment inside the enclosure to adapt itself and create a static channel environment with the specified requirement needs. For example, to improve test time for a 2-antenna device, the system groups the antenna elements of the system into two arrays to create two signal streams creating a 2x2-matrix channel with the cross-coupled matrix values minimized (e.g. minimization of the matrix condition number). This created static channel environment with optimized isolation between the two direct signal paths enables testing of the two antenna streams concurrently with minimized perturbation between the streams, hence reducing test time by almost half. The system will reconfigure the antenna elements for each test channel. This proposed new method of an adaptive over-the-air test system opens up to new ways of testing fully-assembled wireless devices in factories and also enables testing of certain performance qualities that current existing OTA test systems cannot perform.

Generalized Probe-Position Compensation Methods for Near-Field Antenna Measurements
Michael Francis,Ronald Wittmann, David Novotny, Joshua Gordon, November 2015

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed computationally efficient algorithms for probe location and polarization compensation in near- to far-field transformations for use when measurements are not made on the standard canonical grids. A major application of such methods is at higher frequencies, where it is difficult or impractical to locate a probe to required tolerances for the standard transforms. Our algorithms require knowledge of the actual position of the probe at the measurement points. This information can be furnished by state-of-the-art optical tracking devices. Probe position information is routinely obtained by the NIST CROMMA (Configurable Robotic MilliMeter-wave Antenna) Facility. Even at lower frequencies, probe-location compensation techniques allow in principle, the use of less precise and therefore, less expensive scanning hardware. Our approach also provides the flexibility to process data intentionally collected on nonstandard grids (plane-polar, spiral, etc.) or with mixed geometries (such as a cylinder with a hemispherical or planar end cap).   We present simulations and actual probe position compensation results at 183 GHz. The possibility of compensating for known variations in the probe pointing is considered.

Computation of the Far Field Radiated by Aperiodic Sampled Planar Fields by Means of NUFFT
Daniel Rodríguez Prado,Manuel Arrebola, Marcos Rodríguez Pino, Fernando Las-Heras, November 2015

It is a common practice when computing radiation patterns from non-uniformly sampled planar fields to interpolate the samples into a regular grid [1], although it might cause inaccuracies due to the interpolation process. The non-uniform fast Fourier transform (NUFFT) has been applied to process near field measurements in non-uniform planar grids with arbitrary precision [2], and also to analyze aperiodic arrays [3]. However, samples are usually treated as punctual sources. In this contribution, an efficient and accurate method to calculate the far field radiated by non-uniformly sampled planar fields which comply the Nyquist theorem using the non-uniform fast Fourier transform (NUFFT) is shown. The method takes into account the amplitude of the unit cell radiation pattern, which allows to compute more accurately the copolar and crosspolar components of the far field with regard to the array factor [3], which models the samples as punctual sources. For measured fields it is assumed that post-processing has been done, for instance, taking into account probe corrections. Because the NUFFT is precision-dependent, a discussion of how its accuracy can affect the computed radiated fields will be carried out. Numerical examples will be provided to show the accuracy and performance of the NUFFT with regard to the FFT and direct evaluation of the far fields. Finally, a study of computing times comparing the FFT, NUFFT and direct evaluation will be presented. References [1] Y. Rahmat-Samii, L. I. Williams, and R. G. Yaccarino, “The UCLA bi-polar planar-near-field antenna-measurement and diagnostics range,” IEEE Antennas Propag. Mag., vol. 37, no. 6, pp. 16–35, Dec. 1995. [2] R. C. Wittmann, B. K. Alpert, and M. H. Francis, “Near-field antenna measurements using nonideal measurement locations,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 46, no. 5, pp. 716–722, May 1998. [3] A. Capozzoli, C. Curcio, G. D'Elia, and A. Liseno, “Fast phase-only synthesis of conformal reflectarrays,” IET Microw. Antennas Propag., vol. 4, no. 12, Dec. 2010.

Optimization of the Reflectarray Quiet Zone for use in Compact Antenna Test Range
Daniel Rodríguez Prado,Álvaro Fernández Vaquero, Manuel Arrebola, Marcos Rodríguez Pino, Fernando Las-Heras, November 2015

Reflectarrays have been widely studied in the past 3 decades and several techniques have been developed for the synthesis of shaped-beam far-field radiation patterns [1]. Also, some near-field applications have been studied, such as imaging [2] or RFID [3]. In this contribution, a near-field synthesis technique is proposed for the reflectarray quiet zone optimization, which can be of interest in the design of probes for compact antenna test ranges (CATR) at high frequencies. The near-field of the reflectarray is characterized by a simple radiation model which computes the near field of the whole antenna as far-field contributions of each element. The reflectarray unit cell is considered the unit radiation element and its far field is computed employing the second principle of equivalence. Then, at each point in space, all contributions from the elements of the reflectarray are added in order to obtain the near field [4]. This simple model has been validated through simulations with GRASP [5] and also through near-field measurements. Then it has been used to optimize the near field of the reflectarray. The Intersection Approach algorithm is used to optimize both amplitude and phase of the near field radiated by the antenna, and uses the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm [6] as backward projector. This optimization increases the size of the quiet zone generated by the reflectarray. References [1] J. Huang and J. A. Encinar, Reflectarray Antennas Wiley-IEEE Press, 2008. [2] H. Kamoda et al., "60-GHz electronically reconfigurable large reflectarray using single-bit phase shifters," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 59, no. 7, pp. 2524–2531, July 2011. [3] Hsi-Tseng Chou et al., "Design of a near-field focused reflectarray antenna for 2.4 GHz RFID reader applications," IEEE Trans. Antennas and Propag., vol. 59, no. 3, pp. 1013–1018, March 2011. [4] D. R. Prado, M. Arrebola, M. R. Pino, F. Las-Heras, "Evaluation of the quiet zone generated by a reflectarray antenna," International Conference on Electromagnetics in Advanced Applications (ICEAA), pp. 702–705, 2-7 Sept. 2012. [5] "GRASP Software", TICRA, Denmark, http://www.ticra.com. [6] J. Álvarez et al., “Near field multifocusing on antenna arrays via non-convex optimisation,” IET Microw. Antennas Propag., vol. 8, no. 10, pp. 754–764, Jul. 2014.

Experimental Measurements Using the Uniform, Latitude, and Equally-Spaced Spherical Near-Field Measurement Grids
Ryan Cutshall,Jonathan Lawrence, November 2015

Comparisons are made between far-field patterns of an X-band polarization reference horn obtained using the equally-spaced, latitude, and uniform near-field measurement grids. All of the far-fields were obtained by transforming the measured near-field data. Measurement and data processing times are also presented, such that the reader can understand the benefits and drawbacks of the equally-spaced, latitude, and uniform grids. In addition to these comparisons, the sampling requirements of the latitude grid are investigated. In the past, it has been recommended to thin the uniform grid near the poles of the measurement sphere, which is referred to as latitude sampling. The typical method is to multiply the number of sample points required on the equator by a sin(theta) weighting function to obtain the number of sample points required near the poles. However, it will be shown that the sin(theta) weighting function may lead to aliasing in certain cases, and a new method is proposed which is guaranteed to minimize aliasing for any antenna-under-test. We refer to this new grid as the Maximum Fourier Content (MFC) latitude grid.

Spherical Near-Field Measurement Results at Millimeter-Wave Frequencies Using Robotic Positioning
Michael Francis,Ronald Wittmann, David Novotny, Joshua Gordon, November 2014

We describe millimeter-wave near-field measurements made with the new National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) robotic scanning system. This cost-effective system is designed for high-frequency performance, is capable of scanning in multiple configurations, and is able to track measurement geometry at every point in a scan. We have measured a WR-5 standard gain horn at 183 GHz using the spherical near-field method. We compare these results to a theoretical model and to a direct far-field measurement.

Slotted Waveguide Array Beamformer Characterization Using Integrated Calibration Channel
Akin Dalkilic,Caner Bayram, Can Baris Top, Erdinc Ercil, November 2014

In military applications, where low sidelobes and high precision in beam pointing are vital, a phased array antenna beamformer requires to be calibrated regarding the cabling that connects the beamformer to the antenna and mutual coupling between antenna elements. To avoid problems associated with mismatched phase transmission lines between the beamformer and the antenna and include the coupling effects, beamforming network characterization must be done with the antenna integrated to the beamformer. In this paper, a method to characterize the beamformer of a slotted waveguide array antenna in the antenna measurement range is introduced. The antenna is a travelling wave slotted waveguide array scanning in the elevation plane. The elevation pattern of the antenna is a shaped beam realized by a phase-only beamformer. The calibration channel includes serial cross-guide couplers fed by a single waveguide line. The channel is integrated to the waveguide lines of the antenna.  In the first phase of the characterization, the far field pattern of each antenna element is obtained from the near field measurements at the “zero” states of the phase shifters. In the second stage, all states of the phase shifters are measured automatically using the calibration channel described above. The results of calibration channel measurements are used to determine the changes in phase and magnitude for different states of phase shifters. The phase and magnitude of the peak point of the far field pattern is referenced to the zero state measurement of the calibration channel. Phase only pattern synthesis is carried out using the results of both zero-state near field and calibration channel measurements and the required phase shifter states are determined accordingly. Measured patterns show good agreement with the theoretical patterns obtained in the synthesis phase.

A Portable Antenna Measurement System for Large-Scale and Multi-Contour Near-Fields
Alexander Geise,Torsten Fritzel, Hans-Jürgen Steiner, Carsten Schmidt, November 2014

Antenna measurement facilities face their physical limits with the growing size of today’s large and narrow packed antenna farms of telecom satellites but also of large unfurlable reflector antennas for low frequency telecom applications. The special operational constraints that come along when measuring such large future antennas demand for new measurement approaches, especially if the availability or realization of present measurement systems with large anechoic chambers is not an option. This paper presents a new system called PAMS (Portable Antenna Measurement System). The most characteristic part of PAMS is that the RF instrumentation is installed inside a gondola that is positioned by an overhead crane. The gondola is equipped with one or several probes to scan the near-fields of the antenna under test. With a modified crane control the gondola can be placed anywhere within the working space of the crane, which is considered as being giant in comparison to measurement volumes of existing large antenna test facilities. The whole system supports but is not limited to common classical near-field scanning techniques. Thanks to new near-field to far-field transformations the system can deal with arbitrary free form scanning surfaces and probe orientations allowing measurements that have been constrained by the classical near-field theory so far. The paper will explain the PAMS concept on system level and briefly on sub-system level. As proof of concept, study results of critical technologies are discussed. The paper will conclude with the status about on-going development activities.

Computational Electromagnetic Modeling of Near-Field Antenna Test Systems Using Plane Wave Spectrum Scattering Matrix Approach
Allen Newell,Stuart Gregson, November 2014

In recent years a number of analyses and simulations have been published that estimate the effect of using a probe with higher order azimuthal modes with standard probe corrected spherical transformation software.  In the event the probe has higher order modes, errors will be present within the calculated antenna under test (AUT) spherical mode coefficients and the resulting asymptotic far-field parameters [1, 2, 3, 4] where the simulations were harnessed to examine these errors in detail.  Within those studies, a computational electromagnetic simulation (CEM) was developed to calculate the output response for an arbitrary AUT/probe combination where the probe is placed at arbitrary locations on the measurement sphere ultimately allowing complete near-field acquisitions to be simulated.  The planar transmission equation was used to calculate the probe response using the plane wave spectra for actual AUTs and probes derived from either planar or spherical measurements.  The planar transmission formula was utilized as, unlike the spherical analogue, there is no limitation on the characteristics of the AUT or probe thereby enabling a powerful, entirely general, model to be constructed.  This paper further extends this model to enable other measurement configurations and errors to be considered including probe positioning errors which can result in ideal first order probes exhibiting higher order azimuthal mode structures.  The model will also be used to determine the accuracy of the Chu and Semplak near-zone gain correction [5] that is used in the calibration of pyramidal horns.  The results of these additional simulations are presented and discussed. Keywords: near-field, antenna measurements, near-field probe, spherical alignment, spherical mode analysis. REFERENCES A.C. Newell, S.F. Gregson, “Estimating the Effect of Higher Order Modes in Spherical Near-Field Probe Correction”, Antenna Measurement Techniques Association (AMTA) 34th Annual Meeting & Symposium, Bellevue, Washington October 21-26, 2012. A.C. Newell, S.F. Gregson, “Higher Order Mode Probes in Spherical Near-Field Measurements”, 7th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2013) 8-12 April 2013. A.C. Newell, S.F. Gregson, “Estimating the Effect of Higher Order Modes in Spherical Near-Field Probe Correction”, Antenna Measurement Techniques Association (AMTA) 35th Annual Meeting & Symposium, Columbus, Ohio, October 6-11, 2013. A.C. Newell, S.F. Gregson, “Estimating the Effect of Higher Order Azimuthal Modes in Spherical Near-Field Probe Correction”, The 8th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2014) 6-11 April 2014. T.S. Chu, R.A. Semplak, “Gain of Electromagnetic Horns,’’ Bell Syst. Tech. Journal, pp. 527-537, March 1965

Advances in Instrumentation and Positioners for Millimeter-Wave Antenna Measurements
Bert Schluper,Patrick Pelland, November 2014

Applications using millimeter-wave antennas have taken off in recent years. Examples include wireless HDTV, automotive radar, imaging and space communications. NSI has delivered dozens of antenna measurement systems operating at mm-wave frequencies. These systems are capable of measuring a wide variety of antenna types, including antennas with waveguide inputs, coaxial inputs and wafer antennas that require a probing station. The NSI systems are all based on standard mm-wave modules from vendors such as OML, Rohde & Schwarz and Virginia Diodes. This paper will present considerations for implementation of these systems, including providing the correct RF and LO power levels, the impact of harmonics, and interoperability with coaxial solutions. It will also investigate mechanical aspects such as application of waveguide rotary joints, size and weight reduction, and scanner geometries for spherical near-field and far-field measurements. The paper will also compare the performance of the various mm-wave solutions. Radiation patterns acquired using some of these near-field test systems will be shared, along with some of the challenges encountered when performing mm-wave measurements in the near-field.

Source Reconstruction for Radome Diagnostics
Bjorn Widenberg,Kristin Persson, Mats Gustavsson, Gerhard Kristensson, November 2014

Radome enclose antennas to protect them from environmental influences. Radomes are ideally electrically transparent, but in reality, radomes introduce transmission loss, pattern distortion, beam deflection, etc. Radome diagnostics are acquired in the design process, the delivery control, and in performance verification of repaired and newly developed radome. A measured near or far-field may indicate deviations, e.g., increased side-lobe levels or boresight errors, but the origin of the flaws are not revealed. In this presentation, source reconstruction from measured data is used for radome diagnostics. Source reconstruction is a useful tool in applications such as non-destructive diagnostics of antennas and radomes. The radome diagnostics is performed by visualizing the equivalent currents on the surface of the radome. Defects caused by metallic and dielectric patches are imaged from far-field data. The measured far-field is related to the equivalent surface current on the radome surface by using a surface integral representation together with the extinction theorem. The problem is solved by a body of revolution method of moment (MoM) code utilizing a singular value decomposition (SVD) for regularization. Phase shifts, an effective insertion phase delay (IPD), caused by patches of dielectric tape attached to the radome surface, are localized. Imaging results from three different far-field measurement series at 10 GHz are presented. Specifically, patches of various edge sizes (0.5?2.0 wavelengths), and with the smallest thickness corresponding to a phase shift of a couple of degrees are imaged. The IPD of one layer dielectric tape, 0.15 mm, is detected. The dielectric patches model deviations in the electrical thickness of the radome wall. The results from the measurements can be utilized to produce a trimming mask, which is a map of the surface with instructions how the surface should be altered to obtain the desired properties for the radome. Diagnosis of the IPD on the radome surface is also significant in the delivery control to guarantee manufacturing tolerances of radomes.

Nearfield RCS Measurements of Full ScaleTargets Using ISAR
Christer Larsson, November 2014

Near field Radar Cross Section (RCS) measurements and Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar (ISAR) are used in this study to obtain geometrically correct images and far field RCS. The methods and the developed algorithms required for the imaging and the RCS extraction are described and evaluated in terms of performance in this paper. Most of the RCS measurements on full scale objects that are performed at our measurement ranges are set up at distances shorter than those given by the far field criterion. The reasons for this are e.g., constraints in terms of budget, available equipment and ranges but also technical considerations such as maximizing the signal to noise in the measurements. The calibrated near-field data can often be used as recorded for diagnostic measurements. However, in many cases the far field RCS is also required. Data processing is then needed to transform the near field data to far field RCS in those cases. A straightforward way to image the RCS data recorded in the near field is to use the backprojection algorithm. The amplitudes and locations for the scatterers are then determined in a pixel by pixel imaging process. The most complicated part of the processing is due to the near field geometry of the measurement. This is the correction that is required to give the correct incidence angles in all parts of the imaged area. This correction has to be applied on a pixel by pixel basis taking care to weigh the samples correctly. The images obtained show the geometrically correct locations of the target scatterers with exceptions for some target features e.g., when there is multiple or resonance scattering. Separate features in the images can be gated and an inverse processing step can be performed to obtain the far field RCS of the full target or selected parts of the target, as a function of angle and frequency. Examples of images and far field RCS extracted from measurements on full scale targets using the ISAR processing techniques described in this paper will be given.

EIRP & SFD Measurement Methodology for Planar Near-Field Antenna Ranges
Daniël Janse van Rensburg,Karl Haner, November 2014

Equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) and Saturating flux density (SFD) are two system level parameters often sought during characterizing of spacecraft systems. The EIRP quantity is the power that an isotropic radiator will have to transmit to lead to the same power density that the AUT will effect at a specific angle of interest. A convenient measurement technique is to set up a standard gain antenna as receiver in the far-field of an AUT and to then determine EIRP by measuring the power at the port of the standard gain receiving antenna.  Since the distance is known the EIRP can be calculated. SFD is the flux required to saturate the receiver of the antenna under test and is also usually determined on a far-field range. The philosophy of this measurement is to determine the saturation level of the receiver and this is typically achieved by gradually increasing the input power level of the transmitter. This process continues as long as the receiver response linearly tracks the increase in power of the transmitter and is terminated once the receiver is saturated.  Thus, SFD can be interpreted as being the receive system parameter analogy of the transmit system parameter EIRP. There is a common misconception that these parameters cannot be measured on a near-field range and that they require far-field (or far-field equivalent, i.e. compact range) conditions for a valid measurement to be made. However, the principles for measuring both of these parameters in a planar near-field range (PNF) were presented in [1]: An EIRP technique is presented in [1] equation 32 and this approach relies on a complex integration of the measured near-field power, the near-field probe gain and a single power measurement at a reference location. A SFD technique is presented in [1] equation 39. This technique also relies on a complex integration of the measured near-field power, the near-field probe gain and a single transmitting probe power measurement at a reference location. Although these descriptions are theoretically concise their execution is not obvious [2] and as a result, there still seems to be hesitation in making (and trusting) these measurements in industry. This paper intends to provide further insight into measuring these two parameters in a PNF range and offers test procedures outlining the steps involved in doing so. The principle goal is to offer further explanation to illuminate the underlying principles. The work presented here is not new, but is presented as a tutorial on this illusive subject. [1]     Newell, Ward and McFarlane, “Gain and Power Parameter Measurements Using Planar Near-Field Techniques”, IEE APS Transactions, Vol 36, No. 6, June 1988. [2]     Masters & Young, “Automated EIRP measurements on a near-field range”, Antenna Measurement Techniques Association Conference, September 30 - October 3, 1996.

Effects of a Non-Ideal Plane Wave on Compact Range Measurements
David Wayne,Jeffrey Fordham, John McKenna, November 2014

Performance requirements for compact ranges are typically specified as metrics describing the quiet zone's electromagnetic-field quality. The typical metrics are amplitude taper and ripple, phase variation, and cross polarization. Acceptance testing of compact ranges involves phase probing of the quiet zone to confirm that these metrics are within their specified limits. It is expected that if the metrics are met, then measurements of an antenna placed within that quiet zone will have acceptably low uncertainty. However, a literature search on the relationship of these parameters to resultant errors in antenna measurement yields limited published documentation on the subject. Various methods for determining the uncertainty in antenna measurements have been previously developed and presented for far-field and near-field antenna measurements. An uncertainty analysis for a compact range would include, as one of its terms, the quality of the field illuminating on the antenna of interest. In a compact range, the illumination is non-ideal in amplitude, phase and polarization. Error sources such as reflector surface inaccuracies, chamber-induced stray signals, reflector and edge treatment geometry, and instrumentation RF leakage, perturb the illumination from ideal.

Investigations on Gain Measurement Accuracies at Limited Far-Field Conditions
Engin Gülten,Andreas Drexler, Josef Migl, Jürgen Habersack, November 2014

Driven by the mobile data communications needs of market broadband antennas at the upper frequency bands are already state-of-the-art, e.g. at the Ka-Band. For the characterization of an antenna the antenna gain is one of the major test parameters. This measurement task is already challenging for standard applications at the Ka-Band. However, for the calibration of remote station antennas utilized in high precision test facilities, e.g. the compact range, even higher measurement accuracies are typically required in order to fulfil the overall system performance within the later test facility. Therefore the requirement for this investigation is to improve the measurement set-up and also the steps to get a failure budget which is better than ± 0.15 dB. Every antenna gain measurement technique is affected by required changes in the measurement setup, e.g. the Device under Test (DUT) or the remote station, respectively. This results for example in a variation of mismatch with resulting measurement errors. To determine and compensate the occurred mismatches, the scattering parameters of the involved components have to be measured and be evaluated with a corresponding correction formula. To quantify the effect for the gain measurement accuracy the remaining uncertainty of the mismatch correction values is examined. Another distortion is caused by multiple reflections between the antenna apertures. To reduce this error source, four additional measurements each with a decreased free space distance should be performed. In addition to the common methods, this paper explains in detail an advanced error correction method by using the singular value decomposition (SVD) and compares this to the standard mean value approach. Finally the restricted distance between both antennas within the applied anechoic far-field test chamber has to be analysed very critically and optionally corrected for the far-field gain at an infinite distance in case the measurement distance is fulfilling the minimum distance requirement, only. The paper will discuss all major error contributions addressed above, show correction approaches and verify these algorithms with exemplary gain measurements in comparison to the expected figures.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Various Hemispherical Scanning Techniques
Eric Kim,Anil Tellakula, November 2014

When performing far field or near field antenna measurements on large antennas, it is often necessary to have various types of mechanical positioning systems to achieve the required hemispheric scans.  Measurement systems employing a single-arm gantry, a dual-arm gantry, a fixed arch moving probe, or a fixed arch multi-probe have been paired with either an azimuth positioner or a vehicle turntable to provide hemispheric scanning of the object being tested. This paper will highlight the key characteristics of various scanning methods making comparisons between the different techniques.  Positioning and system accuracy, speed, stowing ability, calibration, frequency range, upgradability, relative cost and other key aspects of the various techniques will be discussed in detail to help the end user during the system design and selection process.  In addition, the paper will highlight novel hemispheric and truncated spherical scanning approaches. In many applications, the success of the entire project often centers on the judicious selection of the positioning subsystem.  This paper will provide guidance toward making the proper selection of the scanning concept as well as of the positioning system.

Experimental Tests on an Effective Near-Field to Far-Field Transformation with Spherical Scan From Irregularly Spaced Data
Francesco D'Agostino,Flaminio Ferrara, Jeffrey A. Fordham, Claudio Gennarelli, Rocco Guerriero, Massimo Migliozzi, November 2014

The near-field – far-field (NF–FF) transformation with spherical scanning is particularly interesting, since it allows the reconstruction of the complete radiation pattern of the antenna under test (AUT) [1]. In this context, the application of the nonredundant sampling representations of the electromagnetic (EM) fields [2] has allowed the development of efficient spherical NF–FF transformations [3, 4], which usually require a number of NF data remarkably lower than the classical one [1]. In fact, the NF data needed by this last are accurately recovered by interpolating a minimum set of measurements via optimal sampling interpolation (OSI) expansions. A remarkable measurement time saving is so obtained. However, due to an imprecise control of the positioning systems and their finite resolution, it may be impossible to exactly locate the probe at the points fixed by the sampling representation, even though their position can be accurately read by optical devices. As a consequence, it is very important to develop an effective algorithm for an accurate and stable reconstruction of the NF data needed by the NF–FF transformation from the acquired irregularly spaced ones. A viable and convenient strategy [5] is to retrieve the uniform samples from the nonuniform ones and then reconstruct the required NF data via an accurate and stable OSI expansion. In this framework, two different approaches have been proposed. The former is based on an iterative technique, which converges only if there is a biunique correspondence associating at each uniform sampling point the nearest nonuniform one, and has been applied in [5] to the uniform samples reconstruction in the case of cylindrical and spherical surfaces. The latter relies on the singular value decomposition method, does not exhibit the above limitation, but can be conveniently applied only if the uniform samples recovery can be reduced to the solution of two independent one-dimensional problems [6]. Both the approaches have been applied and numerically compared with reference to the positioning errors compensation in the spherical NF–FF transformation for long antennas [7] using a prolate ellipsoidal AUT modelling. The goal of this work is just to validate experimentally the application of these approaches to the NF–FF transformation with spherical scanning for elongated antennas [4], using a cylinder ended in two half-spheres for modelling them. The experimental tests have been performed in the Antenna Characterization Lab of the University of Salerno, provided with a roll over azimuth spherical NF facility supplied by MI Technologies, and have fully assessed the effectiveness of both the approaches.  [1] J.E. Hansen, ed., Spherical Near-Field Antenna Measurements , IEE Electromagnetic Waves Series, London, UK, Peter Peregrinus, 1998. [2] O.M. Bucci, C. Gennarelli, C. Savarese, “Representation of electromagnetic fields over arbitrary surfaces by a finite and nonredundant number of samples,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Prop. , vol. 46, pp. 351-359, 1998. [3] O.M. Bucci, F. D’Agostino, C. Gennarelli, G. Riccio, C. Savarese, “Data reduction in the NF–FF transformation technique with spherical scanning,” Jour. Electr. Waves Appl ., vol. 15, pp. 755-775, June 2001. [4] F. D’Agostino, F. Ferrara, C. Gennarelli, R. Guerriero, M. Migliozzi, “Effective antenna modellings for NFFF transformations with spherical scanning using the minimum number of data,” Int. Jour. Antennas Prop ., vol. 2011, Article ID 936781, 11 pages, 2011 [5] O.M. Bucci, C. Gennarelli, G. Riccio, C. Savarese, “Electromagnetic fields interpolation from nonuniform samples over spherical and cylindrical surfaces,” IEE Proc. Microw. Antennas Prop ., vol. 141, pp. 77-84, April 1994. [6] F. Ferrara, C. Gennarelli, G. Riccio, C. Savarese, “Far field reconstruction from nonuniform plane-polar data: a SVD based approach,” Electromagnetics,  vol. 23, pp. 417-429, July 2003 [7] F. D’Agostino, F. Ferrara, C. Gennarelli, R. Guerriero, M. Migliozzi, “Two techniques for compensating the probe positioning errors in the spherical NF–FF transformation for elongated antennas,” The Open Electr. Electron. Eng. Jour. , vol. 5, pp. 29-36, 2011.

Experimental Tests on an Effective Near-Field to Far-Field Transformation with Spherical Scan From Irregularly Spaced Data
Francesco D'Agostino,Flaminio Ferrara, Jeffrey A. Fordham, Claudio Gennarelli, Rocco Guerriero, Massimo Migliozzi, November 2014

The near-field – far-field (NF–FF) transformation with spherical scanning is particularly interesting, since it allows the reconstruction of the complete radiation pattern of the antenna under test (AUT) [1]. In this context, the application of the nonredundant sampling representations of the electromagnetic (EM) fields [2] has allowed the development of efficient spherical NF–FF transformations [3, 4], which usually require a number of NF data remarkably lower than the classical one [1]. In fact, the NF data needed by this last are accurately recovered by interpolating a minimum set of measurements via optimal sampling interpolation (OSI) expansions. A remarkable measurement time saving is so obtained. However, due to an imprecise control of the positioning systems and their finite resolution, it may be impossible to exactly locate the probe at the points fixed by the sampling representation, even though their position can be accurately read by optical devices. As a consequence, it is very important to develop an effective algorithm for an accurate and stable reconstruction of the NF data needed by the NF–FF transformation from the acquired irregularly spaced ones. A viable and convenient strategy [5] is to retrieve the uniform samples from the nonuniform ones and then reconstruct the required NF data via an accurate and stable OSI expansion. In this framework, two different approaches have been proposed. The former is based on an iterative technique, which converges only if there is a biunique correspondence associating at each uniform sampling point the nearest nonuniform one, and has been applied in [5] to the uniform samples reconstruction in the case of cylindrical and spherical surfaces. The latter relies on the singular value decomposition method, does not exhibit the above limitation, but can be conveniently applied only if the uniform samples recovery can be reduced to the solution of two independent one-dimensional problems [6]. Both the approaches have been applied and numerically compared with reference to the positioning errors compensation in the spherical NF–FF transformation for long antennas [7] using a prolate ellipsoidal AUT modelling. The goal of this work is just to validate experimentally the application of these approaches to the NF–FF transformation with spherical scanning for elongated antennas [4], using a cylinder ended in two half-spheres for modelling them. The experimental tests have been performed in the Antenna Characterization Lab of the University of Salerno, provided with a roll over azimuth spherical NF facility supplied by MI Technologies, and have fully assessed the effectiveness of both the approaches.  [1] J.E. Hansen, ed., Spherical Near-Field Antenna Measurements , IEE Electromagnetic Waves Series, London, UK, Peter Peregrinus, 1998. [2] O.M. Bucci, C. Gennarelli, C. Savarese, “Representation of electromagnetic fields over arbitrary surfaces by a finite and nonredundant number of samples,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Prop. , vol. 46, pp. 351-359, 1998. [3] O.M. Bucci, F. D’Agostino, C. Gennarelli, G. Riccio, C. Savarese, “Data reduction in the NF–FF transformation technique with spherical scanning,” Jour. Electr. Waves Appl ., vol. 15, pp. 755-775, June 2001. [4] F. D’Agostino, F. Ferrara, C. Gennarelli, R. Guerriero, M. Migliozzi, “Effective antenna modellings for NFFF transformations with spherical scanning using the minimum number of data,” Int. Jour. Antennas Prop ., vol. 2011, Article ID 936781, 11 pages, 2011 [5] O.M. Bucci, C. Gennarelli, G. Riccio, C. Savarese, “Electromagnetic fields interpolation from nonuniform samples over spherical and cylindrical surfaces,” IEE Proc. Microw. Antennas Prop ., vol. 141, pp. 77-84, April 1994. [6] F. Ferrara, C. Gennarelli, G. Riccio, C. Savarese, “Far field reconstruction from nonuniform plane-polar data: a SVD based approach,” Electromagnetics,  vol. 23, pp. 417-429, July 2003 [7] F. D’Agostino, F. Ferrara, C. Gennarelli, R. Guerriero, M. Migliozzi, “Two techniques for compensating the probe positioning errors in the spherical NF–FF transformation for elongated antennas,” The Open Electr. Electron. Eng. Jour. , vol. 5, pp. 29-36, 2011.

Equiangular Phase Shifting Holography for THz Near-field/Far-field Prediction
Gary Junkin,Josep Parrón Granados, Pedro de Paco Sánchez, Yi Lu, November 2014

A three-step equiangular (120º) phase shifting holography (EPSH) technique is proposed for THz antenna near-field/far-field prediction. The method is attractive from the viewpoint of receiver sensitivity, phase accuracy over the entire complex plane, simplified detector array architecture, as well as reducing planarity requirements of the near-field scanner. Numerical modeling is presented for the holographic receiver performance, using expected phase shift calibrations errors and phase shift noise. The receiver model incorporates responsivity and thermal noise specifications of a commercial Schottky diode detector. Additionally, simulated near-field patterns at 372GHz demonstrate the convenience of the method for accurate and high dynamic range THz near-field/far-field predictions, using a phase-shifter calibrated to ±0.1°.







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