Near-Field Measurement Experience at Scientific-Atlanta
Author: Doren W. Hess
Publication: AMTA 1991
Copyright Owner: NSI-MI Technologies
The experience with near-field scanning at Scientific-Atlanta began with a system based upon a analog computer for computing the two-dimensional Fourier transform of the main polarization component. When coupled with a phase/amplitude receiver and a modest planar near-field scanner this system could produce far-field patterns from near-field scanning measurements. In the 1970’s it came to be recognized that the same advances, which made the more sophisticated probe-corrected planar near field measurements possible, would enable conventional far-field range hardware to be used on near-field ranges employing spherical coordinates. In 1980 Scientific-Atlanta first introduced a spherical near-field scanning system based upon a minicomputer already used to automate data acquisition and display. In 1990, to meet the need of measuring complex multistate phased-array antennas, Scientific-Atlanta began planning a system to support the high volume data requirement and high speed measurement need represented by this challenge. Today Scientific-Atlanta is again pursuing planar near-field scanning as the method of choice for this test problem.