An Improved Antenna Group Delay Measurement Method Using a Three-antenna Extrapolation Technique

In order to minimize the error due to multiple reflections between antennas in the conventional group delay (GD) measurement, an improved antenna GD measurement method is proposed. In this method, antenna group delay is measured as a function of distances using a three-antenna extrapolation method. The GD is determined by averaging a set of measured GD values according to a derived multiple-reflection error model. Measurement in frequency band of (1575.42 ± 16) MHz for a circularly polarized helical antenna is presented, which gives the detail measurement procedures and validates the method. The uncertainty evaluation for this measurement was carried out as well, and an expanded uncertainty of 0.20 ns (k = 2) has been achieved. One more measurement example in frequency band of (4000 ± 10) MHz for a standard gain horn antenna with an expanded uncertainty of 0.12 ns (k = 2) is also presented briefly in this paper.

[1]  Lixun Li,et al.  Phase and group delay analysis for patch antenna , 2015, 2015 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC).

[2]  D. Heberling,et al.  Three antenna gain determination method in compact antenna test ranges , 2013, 2013 Loughborough Antennas & Propagation Conference (LAPC).

[3]  K. Fujii,et al.  Uncertainty analysis for three antenna method and standard antenna method , 2012, 2012 IEEE International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility.

[4]  K. G. Johannsen.  Measurement of satellite communication parameters: satellite antenna measurements , 1988 .

[5]  Frank van Graas,et al.  Impact of antenna group delay variations on protection levels , 2016, 2016 IEEE/ION Position, Location and Navigation Symposium (PLANS).

[6]  Zhenfei Song Zhenfei Song,et al.  Accurate gain calibration for a WR10 standard gain horn (SGH) using the three-antenna extrapolation technique. , 2015 .

[8]  Ondrej CERNY,et al.  Optimization of Far-Field Antenna Range , 2015 .

[9]  Philip Miller.  The measurement of antenna group delay , 2014, The 8th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2014).

[10]  Miloslav Capek,et al.  An Introduction to the Source Concept for Antennas , 2016 .

[11]  Do-Hoon Kwon,et al.  Effect of antenna gain and group delay variations on pulse-preserving capabilities of ultrawideband antennas , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[12]  Lixun Li,et al.  GNSS antenna phase center and group delay evaluating , 2015, 2015 IEEE 4th Asia-Pacific Conference on Antennas and Propagation (APCAP).

[13]  Anup Kumar Gogoi,et al.  A Compact Dual Band-Notched Circular Ring Printed Monopole Antenna for Super wideband Applications , 2017 .

[14]  Pejman Rezaei,et al.  Polarization and Radiation Pattern Reconfigurability of a Planar Monopole-Fed Loop Antenna for GPS Application , 2016 .

[15]  Wael A. E. Ali,et al.  Complementary Split Ring Resonator Based Triple Band Microstrip Antenna for WLAN/WiMAX Applications , 2017 .

[16]  P. Besnier,et al.  Antenna Directivity Measurement in Reverberation Chamber From Rician $K$ -Factor Estimation , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[17]  A. Newell,et al.  Accurate measurement of antenna gain and polarization at reduced distances by an extrapolation technique , 1973 .

[18]  S. Standard.  GUIDE TO THE EXPRESSION OF UNCERTAINTY IN MEASUREMENT , 2006 .

[19]  Yafeng Zhan,et al.  The effect of group-delay difference for wideband antenna arraying: Degradation and its solution , 2014, 2014 4th IEEE International Conference on Information Science and Technology.