Error Suppression Techniques for Near-Field Antenna Measurements

Author: Dan Slater, Greg Hindman

Publication: AMTA 1989

Copyright Owner: NSI-MI Technologies

This paper describes techniques for coherently suppressing multipath and other error sources in planar near-field measurements. Of special interest is a simple, yet effective technique for suppressing axial multipath and mutual coupling between the near-field probe and an antenna. This is of particular value in the testing of low sidelobe antennas. Traditionally, self comparison tests with different separations between the probe and the antenna under test are used to identify the magnitude of multipath errors. What is not generally realized is that these tests can be used to produce a coherent estimate of the induced error, which can often be suppressed. A series of tests was performed with a small X-band phased array antenna, resulting in a reduction of the sidelobe noise background from a 25dB level to better than 50dB.