Exploration of the Feasibility of Adaptive Spherical Near-Field Antenna
Authors: Vincent Beaulé, Derek McNamara, Daniël Janse van Rensburg, Leili Shafai, Shantnu Mishra
Publication: AMTA 2012
Copyright Owner: NSI-MI Technologies
The feasibility of using adaptive acquisition techniques to reduce the overall testing time in spherical near-field (SNF) antenna measurements is investigated. The adaptive approach is based on the premise that near-field to far-field (NF-FF) transformation time is small compared to data acquisition time, so that such computations can be done repeatedly while data is being acquired. This allows us to use the transformed FF data to continuously compute and monitor pre-defined decision functions (formed from the antenna specifications most important to the particular AUT) while data is being acquired. We do not proceed with a complete scan of the measurement sphere but effectively allow the probe to follow a directed path under control of an acquisition rule, so that the sampled NF datapoints constitute an acquisition map on the sphere (the geographical allusion being purposeful). SNF data acquisition can be terminated based on decision function values, allowing the smallest amount of data needed to ensure accurate determination of the AUT performance measures. We demonstrate the approach using actual NF data for several decision functions and acquisition rules.