A linear measurement system for large arrays antennas

A system for measuring large linear arrays of antennas has been developed, fabricated and tested. The system consists on a 12 meters structure where the antenna under test (a L band array of dipoles in this case) is positioned. The measurement probe (another dipole) moves on a linear slide and stops in front of each element of the array to acquire the electric field. All the system is installed on an semi-anechoic chamber, that can be lifted (with two synchronized stepped motors). This semi-anechoic chamber covers the top and side parts of the structure. The bottom part consists on a metallic reflector, that controls the reflections from each antenna element. Once the data is acquired, the data are processed to obtain the far field patterns and parameters of the antenna array (element amplitude and phase, beam width, side level, beam pointing …) All the results are presented in a windows environment, and all the system is integrated in a friendly user interface.