Cylindrical near field systems are appropriate measurement systems for huge L-band RADAR antennas, because the antenna can be measured on its azimuthal positioner and the probe can be easily translated through a vertical linear slide. So for large antennas the mechanical aspects of the antenna measurement systems are important and the errors in this mechanical part can affect to the far field radiation pattern. This paper presents an error estimation tool to analyze the most important errors in one cylindrical acquisition system and the effect of these errors in the calculation of
the far field radiation pattern. This studyhas been performed to improve the cylindrical systemand to evaluate the error budgetof the Antenna Under Test (AUT). The simulator calculates the far field froman array of dipoles over a ground plane (Antenna UnderTest model) and compares the ideal result with the electric field obtained using the cylindrical near to farfield transformation algorithms. The results achieved are the variation in the principal patterns of the far field, RMS errors in side lobes and maximum errors in side lobes.
Random and deterministic source of errors have been considered.