Antenna coupling and near-field sampling in plane-polar coordinates

A probe-corrected vector transmission formula and a rigorous sampling-reconstruction theorem for near-field antenna measurements in plane-polar coordinates are derived from three fundamental theorems of antenna theory: the mutual coupling function between two antennas satisfies the homogeneous wave equation; a receiving antenna can be represented as a differentiator of the incident field; and the mutual coupling function is virtually bandlimited. The rigorous sampling equations are applied to compute the far fields of a circular-aperture antenna sampled in the near field at half-wavelength radial spacing     

由极平面近场测量确定天线远区辐射场

文章讨论了极平面近场测量确定天线远区辐射场的基本公式，采用Ｊａｃｏｂｉ－Ｂｅｓｓｅｌｓ级数展开方法求解电磁流模系数。通过对１．２ｍ反射面天线极平面近场扫描的实测结果与远场测量结果的比较，证明了该方法的有效性。     

FFT applications to plane-polar near-field antenna measurements

The four-point bivariate Lagrange interpolation algorithm was applied to near-field antenna data measured in a plane-polar facility. The results were sufficiently accurate to permit the use of the FFT (fast Fourier transform) algorithm to calculate the far-field patterns of the antenna. Good agreement was obtained between the far-field patterns as calculated by the Jacobi-Bessel and the FFT algorithms. The significant advantage in using the FFT is in the calculation of the principal plane cuts, which may be made very quickly. Also, the application of the FFT algorithm directly to the near-field data was used to perform surface holographic diagnosis of a reflector antenna. The effects due to the focusing of the emergent beam from the reflector, as well as the effects of the information in the wide-angle regions, are shown. The use of the plane-polar near-field antenna test range has therefore been expanded to include these useful FFT applications     

A plane-polar approach for far-field construction from near-field measurements

It is well-known that the far field of an arbitrary antenna may be calculated from near-field measurements. Among various possible nearfield scan geometries, the planar configuration has attracted considerable attention. In the past the planar configuration has been used with a probe scanning a rectangular geometry in the near field, and computation of the far field has been made with a two-dimensional fast Fourier transform (FFT). The applicability of the planar configuration with a probe scanning a polar geometry is investigated. The measurement process is represented as a convolution derivable from the reciprocity theorem. The concept of probe compensation as a deconvolution is then discussed with numerical results presented to verify the accuracy of the method. The far field is constructed using the Jacobi-Bessel series expansion and its utility relative to the FFT in polar geometry is examined. Finally, the far-field pattern of the Viking high gain antenna is constructed from the plane-polar near-field measured data and compared with the previously measured far-field pattern. Some unique mechanical and electrical advantages of the plane-polar configuration for determining the far-field pattern of large and gravitationally sensitive space antennas are discussed. The time convention exp (j omega r) is used but is suppressed in the formulations.     

Far-field patterns of spaceborne antennas from plane-polar near-field measurements

Certain unique features of a recently constructed plane-polar near-field measurement facility for determining the far-field patterns of large and fragile spaceborne antennas are described. In this facility, the horizontally positioned antenna rotates about its axis while the measuring probe is advanced incrementally in a fixed radial direction. The near-field measured data is then processed using a Jacobi-Bessel expansion to obtain the antenna far fields. A summary of the measurement and computational steps is given. Comparisons between the outdoor far-field measurements and the constructed far-field patterns from the near-field measured data are provided for different antenna sizes and frequencies. Application of the substitution method for the absolute gain measurement is discussed. In particular, results are shown for the 4.8-m mesh-deployable high-gain antenna of the Galileo spacecraft which has the mission of orbiting Jupiter in 1988.     

Prediction of far-field from uniform and non-uniform under-sampled near-field data in planar near-field antenna measurements

In near-field antenna measurements various forms of uniform and non-uniform sampling techniques have been widely deployed. Considering the fact that the near-field pattern of any antenna is a spatially quasi-band-width-limited function of space coordinates, Shannon's theorem simply defines the sampling frequency. Based on the sampling theorem, in order to precisely reconstruct a band-limited signal from its samples, the sampling frequency must be at least twice as much as the signal's bandwidth. Through the simulations and theoretical evaluations this research shows that if the near-field pattern is either uniformly or non-uniformly under-sampled due to any practical reasons, yet a good estimation of far-field pattern can be obtained especially if the antenna under test (AUT) is a directive high-gain or super high-gain antenna. Also the time efficiency of far-field prediction from under-sampled near-field data is discussed and the advantages and disadvantages are highlighted.     

A plane-polar near-field to far-field transformation with the fast Hankel transform method

It is known that a direct radial integration, used to compute the far-field from uniformly spaced plane-polar near-field measurements requires the evaluation of a large amount of Bessel functions and hence CPU time. Up to 1985 only unequally spaced fast Hankel algorithms were available. Hansen [3] developed an algorithm that was usable for equally spaced measurements points, but only for order zero. His theory is generalised in this paper and applied to a plane-polar near-field to far-field transformation.     

Near-field antenna measurements using nonideal measurementlocations

We introduce a near-field to far-field transformation algorithm that relaxes the usual restriction that data points be located on a plane rectangular grid. Computational complexity is O(Nlog N) where N is the number of data points. This algorithm allows efficient processing of near-field data with known probe position errors. Also, the algorithm is applicable to other measurement approaches such as plane-polar scanning, where data are collected intentionally on a nonrectangular grid     

Current antenna research at K. U. Leuven

Four antenna research projects at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven are described. In the first project, four different methods for the transformation of plane-polar near-field data to far-field antenna characteristics have been compared, and the method with the best performance (accuracy versus computer time) has been implemented on an HP 1000 and on a VAX under VMS. In the second project, a test method has been developed to detect faulty columns in three-dimensional array antennas. The method is based on a reconstruction technique, and has been implemented in an air-surveillance secondary radar system. In the third project, the transmission-line model developed for rectangular microstrip antennas has been implemented and verified for linear and planar arrays. The software package runs on a PC, as well as on VAX workstations. In the fourth project, a software package, running on a VAX under VMS, has been developed based on a moment-method approach for the analysis of multiprobe, multipatch configurations in stratified-dielectric media. The procedure developed contains features to improve the convergence, accuracy and efficiency of the moment method     

Analysis of phase-focused near-field testing for multiphase-centeradaptive radar systems

Airborne or spaceborne radar systems often require tests before deployment to verify how well the system detects targets and suppresses clutter and jammer signals. The radar antenna diameter can be large and thus the conventional far-field test distance is impractical to implement. The theory and simulations of phase-focused near-field testing for adaptive phased array antennas is discussed. With near-field source deployment, standard phased-array near-field phase focusing provides far-field adaptive nulling equivalent performance at a range distance of one aperture diameter from the adaptive antenna under test. Both main beam clutter sources and sidelobe jammer sources are addressed. The phased array antenna elements analyzed are one-half wavelength dipoles over the ground plane. Bandwidth, polarization, array mutual coupling, and finite array edge effects are taken into account. Numerical simulations of an adaptive antenna that has multiple displaced phase centers indicate that near-field and far-field testing can be equivalent     

Fast and accurate near-field-far-field transformation by samplinginterpolation of plane-polar measurements

An optimal sampling interpolation algorithm which allows the accurate recovery of plane-rectangular near-field samples from the knowledge of the plane-polar ones is developed. This enables the standard near-field-far-field (NF-FF) transformation, which takes full advantage of the fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm, to be applied to plane-polar scanning. The maximum allowable sample spacing is also rigorously derived, and it is shown that it can be significantly greater than λ/2 as the measurement place moves away from the source. This allows a remarkable reduction of both measurement time and memory storage requirements. The sampling approach is compared with that based on the bivariate Lagrange interpolation (BLI) method. The sampling reconstruction agrees with the exact results significantly better than the BLI, in spite of the significantly lower number of required measurements     

车载天线整车测试系统集成与实现

针对自动驾驶、车联网等新技术场景下汽车天线整车性能测试的新需求,借鉴近年来近场测量技术的研究成果,设计采用半球面近场与平面近场相结合的方式,集成了一套汽车天线整车测试系统.系统基于8 m直径的方位转台实现了中小型汽车的车载天线测试定位,基于12 m直径的弧形多探头采样架实现了 400 MHz～6 GHz工作频段内的车载...     

基于傅立叶变换频移特性的平面近场测试方法

为了满足快速和无相测试现场天线的需求,文中提出了一种基于傅立叶变换频移特性的平面近场测 试方法。该方法采用多探头技术,利用各个通道的移相,达到天线角域的移动,实现了任意指向角信号的采集,具有 测试快速、使用便捷的特点,特别适用于天线的大规模生产测试和现场测试等。对一个标准喇叭天线进行了平面近 场扫描测量,对比了用传统近场数据处理插值方式得到的和用频移性质得到的天线远场方向图(E 面)。实验显示, 该方法具有与传统近场测试方法相同的效果,能有效地测试天线方向图。     

Evaluation of adaptive phased array antenna, far-field nullingperformance in the near-field region

A theory for analyzing the behavior of adaptive phased array antennas illuminated by a near-field interference test source is presented. Conventional phased array near-field focusing is used to produce an equivalent far-field antenna pattern at a range distance of one to two aperture diameters from the adaptive antenna under test. The antenna is assumed to be a linear array of isotropic receive elements. The interferer is assumed to be a bandlimited noise source radiating from an isotropic antenna. The theory is developed for both partially and fully adaptive arrays. Results are presented for the fully adaptive array case with single and multiple interferers. The results indicate that near-field and far-field adaptive nulling can be equivalent. The adaptive nulling characteristics studied in detail are the array radiation patterns, adaptive cancellation, covariance matrix eigenvalues, and adaptive array weights     

Fast algorithm for calculation of radiation integral and its application to plane-polar near-field/far-field transformation

An efficient algorithm for calculation of the radiation integral is described. The process is presented in the form of a crosscorrelation which is carried out by utilising the fast Fourier transform. Applications to a plane-polar geometry and to the reflector antenna are considered and the results of simulations are presented as validation of the process.     

口径面与测量面不平行时的天线近场检测

研究了在被测天线的口径面与平面近场测量面不平行时，将近场测量数据到天线口径面的变换转化成对矩阵方程的求解，采用奇异值分解法，在最小二乘意义下求出天线口径面上的幅相分布，对天线进行诊断和校准，并通过实验验证了该方法的有效性和实用性。     

Formulation of probe-corrected planar near-field scanning in thetime domain

Probe-corrected planar near-field formulas in the time domain are derived for both acoustic and electromagnetic fields, so that a single set of near-field measurements in the time domain yields the fields of the test antenna directly in the time domain. The time-domain probe-corrected formulas are first derived by taking the inverse Fourier transform-of the corresponding frequency-domain formulas, and then by using a time-domain expansion for the fields of the test antenna and a time-domain receiving characteristic of the probe. Because these general formulas, which involve a double integral over the scan plane and an infinite time-convolution integral, are rather complicated, we consider a special probe whose output due to an incoming time domain plane wave is proportional to the time derivative of the field of that plane wave. For this special “D-dot probe”, the probe-corrected formulas simplify to give the time-domain far-held pattern as a double spatial integral of the time-domain output of the probe over the scan plane multiplied by the angular dependence of the inverse receiving characteristic of the probe. Time-domain reciprocity relations are derived for reciprocal probes, and their time-domain receiving characteristics are related to their far fields. Finally, a time-domain sampling theorem is derived and a numerical example illustrates the use of the time-domain probe-corrected formulas     

Comparison of near-field range results

Comparisons of measurements on a contoured beam antenna carried out at five independent European test ranges are presented. They include a compact antenna test range, two cylindrical near-field test ranges, and two spherical near-field test ranges. The comparisons illustrate problems in the determination of gain values and cross polarization, while the agreement in the copolar patterns and the peak directivity is very good     

球面近远场和远近场变换算法

天线的远场对于研究天线辐射特性具有重大意义，近场测量技术因其能够避免直接测量远场而得到广泛应用，该技术采用近远场变换获得远场，然而，检验该远场的准确性也是很重要的.为了解决此类问题，文中以球面近场测量为例，提供了一种解决方案.该方案主要探讨了球面波模式展开理论，该理论是实现球面近远场变换算法的关键，其将待测天线在空间建立的场展开成球面波函数之和，天线的加权系数既包含了远场信息也包含了近场信息.因此，不仅能够利用近场测量信息获得远场辐射特性，同样能够利用远场辐射特性反推得到近场处电场，这样就能检验由近远场变换算法得到的远场是否准确.文中首先推算得到了近远场变换公式，随后进一步推算得到远近场变换的公式，最后将本文算法计算结果与FEKO测量结果进行比较，二者吻合良好，从而证实了本文两种算法的有效性.