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In this report, the element failure detection of array antenna is performed with a minimum number of measurement points while maintaining sufficient accuracy by learning the relationship between excitation coefficients of array antenna and the electric near-field distribution by a shallow neural network. When training the neural network, the massive number of training data are generally required. For increasing the training data, we use each element-fed near-field distribution multiplied by a number of random excitation coefficients. In the case of dipole array antennas, the estimation error of excitation coefficients of array antenna less than 1% are achieved by our trained neural network with a minimum number of near-field measurements.
A reliable technique for antenna array characterization and calibration is demonstrated for two state-of-the-art antenna measurement systems, a near-field system and a compact antenna test range system. Both systems are known to reduce the measurement distance between device under test and the probe antenna in comparison to classical far-field systems, which need to provide at least the Fraunhofer distance as minimum range length. Equivalent magnetic surface currents are derived from measurements, which represent the electric field on the applied Huygens surface. The calculated equivalent magnetic currents are utilized for characterizing two completely different antenna arrays in the millimeter-wave region. Magnitude and phase calibration opportunities of antenna arrays are discussed, as well as the accuracy provided by the proposed calibration technique.
This paper investigates numerically the feasibility of using quarter wavelength coaxial resonators for permittivity measurements of pressurized gases, as found in the subsurface. The non-short-circuited end of the resonator is facing the inside of a pressure cell and is filled with pressure resistant, low-loss dielectric material. Results show that as pressure increases, the corresponding increase in dielectric constant can be detected through a shift in the resonant frequency of |S11| and confirmed by a change in the phase of S11.
This paper demonstrates the capability of the NIST CROMMA antenna measurement facility to perform near-field measurements by collecting data at "arbitrary" positions near the test antenna. We have devised several measurement campaigns involving non-standard near-field measurement grids, including (1) a regular (equispaced in and ) spherical grid with random probe-position displacements and (2) a spiral grid on the surface of a sphere. Simulations have been used to demonstrate the robustness and accuracy of NIST processing software. Near-field measurements have been performed at 72 GHz on a horn antenna. We compare radiation patterns obtained using the standard regular spherical grid with those obtained with the nonstandard grids (1) and (2).
Intrinsic magnetic and dielectric properties of magneto-dielectric composites are typically determined at microwave frequencies with both transmission and reflection data. An iterative method, such as root-finding, is often used to extract the properties in a frequency-by-frequency basis. In some situations, materials may be manufactured on a metal substrate that prevents transmission data from being obtained. This happens when the materials are too fragile or too strongly bonded to the substrate for removal and must be characterized with the metal substrate in place. This paper compares two different free-space extraction algorithms, developed for the simultaneous extraction of complex permittivity and permeability from metal-backed reflection. One of the algorithms relies on reflection measurements of the same material with two known thicknesses. The second method takes advantage of wide bandwidth measurements to fit the reflection to analytical models (e.g. Debye). The accuracy of these methods are evaluated and the stability criteria for the techniques will be discussed, as well as the tolerance of the techniques to various measurement errors.
The calibration of the antenna measurements system is a fundamental step which directly influences the accuracy of any power-related quantity of the device under test. In some types of systems, the calibration can be more challenging than in others, and the selection of a proper calibration method is critical. In this paper, the calibration of the truncated spherical near-field ranges typically used for automotive tests is investigated, considering both absorbing and conductive floors. The analyses are carried out in a 12:1 scaled multi-probe system, allowing access to the "true", full-sphere calibration which is used as reference. It will be demonstrated that the substitution (or transfer) method is an excellent calibration technique for these types of systems, if applied considering the efficiency of the reference antenna.
The Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR) was initially conceived as an efficient way of testing electrically large antennas at very much reduced, fixed, range lengths than would otherwise be the case. However, when testing lower gain, physically smaller antennas, the measurements can become susceptible to inhomogeneities within the CATR QZ including phenomena associated with edge diffraction effects, feed spill-over, chamber multipath etc. Whilst it has been demonstrated experimentally that many of these measurement artefacts may be effectively mitigated using standard and modern more sophisticated post-processing techniques. This paper supports those findings through simulation of the direct and indirect far field ranges and by careful examination of the data processing chain. Results are presented, the relative success of the various techniques examined and the utility of this is set, and expounded, in the context of modern, i.e. 5G, communications systems.
Radiating performances of vehicle-installed antennas are typically performed in large spherical near-field systems able to accommodate the entire car. Due to the size and weight of the vehicle to be tested, such spherical systems are often nearly hemispherical, and the floor is conductive or covered with absorbers. The main advantage of the first is the ease of the accommodation of the vehicle under test. Conversely, the latter is more time consuming in the setup of the measurements because the absorbers need to be moved in order to be placed around the vehicle. On the other hand, the absorber-covered floors emulate a free-space environment which is a key enabling factor in performing accurate measurements at low frequencies (down to 70 MHz). Moreover, the availability of the free-space response allows easy emulation of the cars' behaviors over realistic automotive environments (e.g. roads, urban areas etc.) with commercially available tools. Such emulations are instead much more challenging when a conductive floor is considered. Furthermore, the raw measurements over conductive floors are a good approximation of realistic grounds (such as asphalts) only in a limited number of situations. For these reasons, when PEC-based automotive measurements are performed, it is often required to retrieve the free-space response, or equivalently, to remove the effect of the conductive ground. In this paper two spatial-filtering techniques (the spherical modal filtering and the equivalent currents) will be experimentally analyzed and compared to verify their effectiveness in removing the effect of the conductive floor. For this purpose, a scaled automotive PEC-based measurement setup has been implemented considering a small spherical multi-probe system and a 1:12 scaled car model. The two techniques will be analyzed considering two different heights of the scaled car model with respect to the conductive floor.
The aim of the paper is to assess the quality of the obtained results using a portable system to perform antenna diagnostics versus acquisition time. The system comprises a handheld probe antenna, a motion capture system to track its position and a laptop to process the acquired data. The probe antenna is arbitrarily moved in front of the antenna under test (AUT) aperture, acquiring its near-field (NF) while its position is measured. The obtained data is processed in real-time using the Sources Reconstruction Method (SRM) to compute an equivalent currents distribution on the aperture of the AUT. Furthermore, a near-field to far-field (NF-FF) transformation is performed to retrieve the far-field radiation pattern of the AUT from the computed equivalent currents distribution. Specifically, the system was evaluated at 32 GHz using a vector network analyzer to measure the NF radiated by the AUT. The obtained results show that a scan of only a few seconds can provide a fast diagnostic of the AUT.
Antenna systems commonly used in space applications, are often exposed to extreme environmental conditions and to significant temperature variation. Thermal stress may induce structural deformations of the radiators or affect the RF performance of the active front-ends. These are some of the reasons that pushed the testing technology to characterize the radiating proprieties of Antennas Under Test (AUT) in realistic thermal conditions. Testing facilities available for these purposes are nowadays typically limited in terms of temperature range, measurable radiation pattern and size of the AUT. This paper describes the multi-physics design considerations (i.e. thermal, structural and RF) for the development of a novel facility to evaluate AUT radiation pattern characteristics in thermal conditions, from L to Q band, as an add-on feature to the ESA-ESTEC Hybrid European RF and Antenna Test Zone (HERTZ), located in Noordwijk (The Netherlands). The goal is to extend such a testing to AUTs up to 2.4m diameter in envelope over an extreme temperature range (+/-120°C), allowing a free movement of the AUT and taking advantage of Spherical Near-Field (SNF) measurement techniques.
The characterization of antenna radiation patterns in the millimeter wave band are particularly challenging. This is due to the fact that a misalignment of just a few millimeters between the probe and the antenna can generate substantial measurement errors. This paper describes a strategy to reduce measurement errors by introducing a highly precise measurement system using a 6-axis small robotic arm to characterize the performance of a phased array antenna operating at 60 GHz. The position accuracy of the robotic arm itself is approximately 20 m and a maximum far field distance of approximately 380 mm can be achieved. The robot is programmed to perform a spherical trajectory around the array with stops every 0.5⁰ along the path to gather the measured gain. It operates continuously by communicating with a computer, which triggers the network analyzer at preprogrammed locations. The system is tested initially using two horn antennas as the antenna under test (AUT), and the results are presented.
We present a novel, non-contact characterization technique for simultaneous characterization of conventional antenna parameters, including the antenna port input impedance, antenna gain and its radiation pattern, without requiring a network analyzer connection to the antenna port. The test antenna and the network analyzer are considered as a 2-port open-air fixture whose network representation corresponds to the desired antenna parameters. The unknown network parameters of the 2-port open-air fixture are determined via a novel calibration process using 4 offset-short termination standards. The error parameters determined by the calibration are then related to the test antenna port impedance and its gain as a function of frequency. Furthermore, the radiation pattern of the test antenna can also be characterized using measured reflection coefficient at the network analyzer port for two offset-short terminations of the test antenna port, while rotating the test antenna over the desired angular range. This novel technique is particularly attractive for installed-antenna applications where an active connection to the test antenna port is either difficult or undesirable, such as on-chip antennas and implanted antennas, to name a few. To demonstrate the efficacy our new method, we present the measured impedance, gain and radiation pattern of a diagonal-horn antenna operating over 360-450 GHz, and a lens-integrated planar butterfly antenna for the 220-325GHz band.
Over-the-air (OTA) performance evaluation requires large investments in anechoic environments. The question of minimizing the test distance is hence critical, and even more in this time where millimeter-wave technologies are about to be largely deployed in 5G devices. A recent publication has identified that direct far-field measurements can be accurately carried out at a much shorter range length than the well-known Fraunhofer distance. This paper introduces a further validation of this reduced distance, by employing an innovative method to simulate spherical measurements with arbitrary DUT, test probes and range lengths. The studies carried out confirm the relevance of this shorter distance, not only for the evaluation of the peak equivalent istropic radiated power (EIRP) or sensitivity (EIS), but also for the total radiated power (TRP) or sensitivity (TIS). In addition, it is demonstrated that the usual assumption that the TRP or TIS measurement is almost independent from the range length is flawed. Two main reasons relating to the test antenna are established which create this dependence: (i) OTA test probes have a finite resolution, and (ii) the probe and instrumentation typically captures the magnitude of two components of the E-field, which are not straightforwardly related to the power density in the near-field.
The inverse equivalent source problem related to near-field antenna measurements is typically ill-posed, i.e., the forward operator suffers from non-trivial null spaces. This issue is commonly tackled by pursuing a least-squares solution of the reconstructed near fields. We propose to find a solution of the normal error system of equations which minimizes the 2-norm of the source-coefficients reconstruction deviation. In the scope of near-field to far-field transformations (NFFFTs), advantages are found in a slightly better iterative solver convergence, a reduced number of unknowns, and-most importantly-a more convenient control of the stopping criterion of the iterative solution process. Since the residual of the normal-error solution equals the reconstruction deviation, the proposed formulation includes a meaningful stopping criterion based on the measurement error. All these claims are corroborated by NFFFTs of synthetic and real-world measurement data.
Antenna measurement errors occur due to reflections and diffractions within the measuring chamber. In order to extract and correct the undesired signals, a technique based on test-zone field compensation and spherical wave expansion is applied to Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR) and Spherical Near-Field (SNF) measurements of a base transceiver station antenna. The required spherical test-zone field is acquired by simulating the corresponding measurement environment with the multi-level fast multipole method. Due to the numerical complexity of the problem, only the parts of the chamber with a significant influence on the measurement results are modeled. Comparing the determined directivities after applying the correction method, an exact overlap is achieved between the SNF and CATR solution.
Wireless industry through 3GPP has standardized 5G in both FR1 (sub 6 GHz) and FR2 (24.25-52.6 GHz) frequency ranges. While FR1 will be using frequencies already in place for LTE-4G technology, FR2 is dealing with mmWave frequencies. Due to the high free space path loss (FSPL), 5G at mmWave would impose the use of directive antennas on both ends of the communication link, the User Equipment (UE) and the Base Station (BS). A black box approach (i.e. the location of the antenna within the device is unknown) has been agreed to be used for Over The Air (OTA) measurements. The physical center of the device must be aligned with the center of the measurement setup. Hence, the test antennas will likely be offset with respect to the center of the coordinate system. The measurement distance will be for most systems sufficient to minimize the amplitude error while will introduce a phase deviation between the actual spherical wave and the desired plane wave which may cause an effective phase shaping of the radiated beam of the small phased array under test. In this paper we will analyze the impact of the phase curvature on the beam antenna pattern and spherical coverage for the different testing environments. Specifically, simulation of a 5G terminal device with multiple beams will be considered and realistic spherical near field measurement at different finite distances will be emulated also taking into account different measurement antennas (probes).
The Plane Wave Generator (PWG) is an array of elements generating an approximately plane wave over a finite volume in the test area called Quiet Zone (QZ). The plane wave condition can be achieved in close proximity to the array with suitably optimized complex coefficients. The PWG thus achieve far-field testing conditions in a manner similar to the Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR) but with a reduced distance to the QZ [1-2]. As a complete system the PWG has the advantage of reduced physical size compared to the a CATR with equivalent testing capabilities, in particular at lower frequencies. In [3-4], the concept of a high performance, dual polarized PWG supporting up to 1:10 bandwidth was presented. A prototype of a dual polarized PWG has been designed, manufactured and tested in the 600MHz to 6GHz frequency range. This paper presents the initial verification of the prototype PWG. The testing is performed using a representative analog beam forming network with narrow bandwidth. The QZ uniformity of the PWG is verified by spherical near-field measurements and back-propagation. The peak gain of a low directivity antenna is measured at different distances in the QZ and compared to reference measurements in a spherical near-field system. The aim of the comparison is to access the measurement accuracy of the PWG.
In this paper, the experimental validation of a micro-probe fed reference antenna targeting the upcoming 5G applications (24.25-29.5GHz band) is presented. The main purpose of these reference antennas is to serve as "gold standards" and to perform gain calibration of 5G test facilities through the substitution method. The outline of these antennas is based on a square array of four printed patches enclosed in a circular cavity. The RF input interface is a stripline-to-coplanar waveguide transition and allows for feeding the device with a micro-probe. Performance obtained by high-fidelity modeling is reported in the paper and correlated to experimental data. Interaction and unwanted coupling with the test equipment are discussed. The use of echo-reduction techniques and spatial filtering is investigated to mitigate these effects.
In vehicle communications, so as Vehicle-to-X (V2X), field trials are challenging due to high mobility scenarios and dynamic network conditions. It is complex to interpret measurements, to isolate performance from different components in an integrated system. Consequently, it is desirable to test under repeatable laboratory conditions in the early stages of the development cycle, where designers can quickly validate performance and make rapid modifications to prototype hardware and software cost-effectively. Virtual Drive Test (VDT) has attracted great interest from industry and academia. The objective of VDT is to recreate an approximation of the real-world communication conditions in a controlled laboratory environment. VDT is appealing, since testing can be performed in an automated, controllable and repeatable manner, which can considerably reduce testing time and costs, and meanwhile accelerate actual infrastructure deployment. In this paper we present a new VDT technique which allows to evaluate the V2X communications performances taking into account the measured characteristics of transmit and receive antennas installed on vehicles. The proposed VDT technique is a multistage process where radiation characteristics of the vehicle mounted antennas are first measured in free-space conditions in a controlled and repeatable laboratory environment. The Spherical Wave Expansion (SWE) is then applied to the acquired data in order obtain the Spherical Wave Coefficients (SWC) of the measured devices. From the SWC, the transmission formula (or coupling equation) normally involved for probe correction purposes in spherical near field measurements, is then applied in order to evaluate the coupling between two vehicles. The transmission formula has been properly adapted in order to consider variable distances between the vehicles and arbitrary vehicle orientation so that a generic road path can be easily emulated. In the proposed formulation also variable ground conditions can be considered allowing for a more realistic emulation of the final environment. The proposed technique is presented taking into account measurements of a representative scaled automotive scenario.
This paper presents a new type of P-band first-order dual-port probe for spherical near-field antenna measurements. The probe is based on the well-known shorted annular patch antenna but some extensions are introduced for the probe application. This probe is mechanically simple which facilitates its manufacturing and operation. In addition, it has high performance for impedance bandwidth, pattern, directivity, and gain.