INTER-COMPARISON OF NEAR-FIELD ANTENNA MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES

This paper describes the results of an ongoing antenna measurement inter-comparison study. Details of spherical near-field facilities are presented. Instrumentation and data processing software used for the study are described. The RF instrumentation includes HP-Agilent 8530 and PNA Network Analyzers and NSI Panther receivers. The transformation software suits include CASAMS, NSI Spherical and Cylindrical NF-FF Transformation software and TICRA SNFD. Data for a set of rectangular horn antennas and a GPS antenna measured using various instrumentation setups, measurement schemes and post processed employing different transformation software suits, is presented. Analysis of measured results is carried out to illustrate a comparison of performance, accuracy and limitations of these techniques.