Application of Mathematical Absorber Reflection Suppression to Planar Near-Field Antenna Measurements

Authors: S.F. Gregson, A.C. Newell, G.E. Hindman, M.J. Carey
Publication: EuCAP 2011
Copyright Owner: IEEE

Nearly all antenna measurements are contaminated to some degree with fields scattered by objects within the environment of the test system. In many instances these reflections (i.e. multi-path) are found to constitute one of the most significant contributors to the facility-level error budget [1]. For some time, a frequency domain measurement and postprocessing technique named Mathematical Absorber Reflection Suppression (MARS) has been successfully used to reduce range multi-path effects within spherical [2, 3, 4] and cylindrical nearfield antenna measurement systems [5, 6]. More recently, a related technique has been developed for use with planar nearfield antenna measurement systems [7]. This paper provides an introduction to the measurement technique and novel probe pattern corrected near-field to far-field transform algorithm. It then presents the most recent results of an on-going validation campaign which have been found to yield improvements comparable to those attained with the corresponding spherical and cylindrical MARS implementations. These results are discussed and conclusions presented.

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