Planar Near-Field Gain Measurements to Verify Calibration of Probes and Gain Standards
Authors: Allen C. Newell, Chaitanya B. Ravipati, Pierre Arsenault
Publication: AMTA 2001
Copyright Owner: NSI-MI Technologies
Accurate gain measurements using any measurement technique require a calibrated gain standard, and the uncertainty in the gain of the standard is usually the largest term in the error analysis. To reduce the uncertainty, gain standards are often calibrated using a three- antenna measurement technique and the resulting gain values are generally certified to have an uncertainty of approximately 0.10 dB1-11. For near-field measurements, the gain standard may be the probe that is used to obtain the near-field data or it may be a Standard Gain Horn (SGH). Since the calibration of the gain standard is time consuming and often costly, it is desirable to verify that the gain of the standard is stable over long periods of time.
This paper will describe tests to verify the gain stability of the standard and will also illustrate the terms in the error analysis that have the major effect on the uncertainty of any near-field gain measurement. With proper attention to the major error terms, the stability of the gain standard can be verified to approximate the original calibration uncertainty.