An Automated Test Setup for the Characterization of Antenna in CATR
This paper describes the development of a fully
automated measurement software for antenna radiation pattern
measurements in a Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR). The
CATR has a frequency range from 2-40 GHz and the measurement
hardware includes a Network Analyzer for transmitting and
Receiving the microwave signal and a Positioner controller to control
the motion of the Styrofoam column. The measurement process
includes Calibration of CATR with a Standard Gain Horn (SGH)
antenna followed by Gain versus angle measurement of the Antenna
under test (AUT). The software is designed to control a variety of
microwave transmitter / receiver and two axis Positioner controllers
through the standard General Purpose interface bus (GPIB) interface.
Addition of new Network Analyzers is supported through a slight
modification of hardware control module. Time-domain gating is
implemented to remove the unwanted signals and get the isolated
response of AUT. The gated response of the AUT is compared with
the calibration data in the frequency domain to obtain the desired
results. The data acquisition and processing is implemented in
Agilent VEE and Matlab. A variety of experimental measurements
with SGH antennas were performed to validate the accuracy of
software. A comparison of results with existing commercial
softwares is presented and the measured results are found to be
within .2 dBm.
[1] A D olver, Compact Antenna test Ranges, Antennas and Propagation,
1991.
[2] An introduction to Antenna test ranges, Measurements and
instrumentation by Jeffrey A. Fordham microwave instrumentation
technologies, LLC.
[3] ARCS interface module, design and specification, March Microwave
systems B.V., Nuenen, the Netherlands
[4] Millitech Inc. 29 Industrial Drive East Northampton, MA U.S.A
01060
[5] Agilent Antenna and RCS measurement configuration using PNA
Microwave Network Analyzers
[6] Agilent VEE Pro, version: 7.0.6310.0, http://www.home.agilent.com
[7] A.M. Prodoehl and W. L. Stutzman, implementation and results of a
time-domain gating system for far-field ranges, AMTA1997.
[1] A D olver, Compact Antenna test Ranges, Antennas and Propagation,
1991.
[2] An introduction to Antenna test ranges, Measurements and
instrumentation by Jeffrey A. Fordham microwave instrumentation
technologies, LLC.
[3] ARCS interface module, design and specification, March Microwave
systems B.V., Nuenen, the Netherlands
[4] Millitech Inc. 29 Industrial Drive East Northampton, MA U.S.A
01060
[5] Agilent Antenna and RCS measurement configuration using PNA
Microwave Network Analyzers
[6] Agilent VEE Pro, version: 7.0.6310.0, http://www.home.agilent.com
[7] A.M. Prodoehl and W. L. Stutzman, implementation and results of a
time-domain gating system for far-field ranges, AMTA1997.
@article{"International Journal of Electrical, Electronic and Communication Sciences:64334", author = "Faisal Amin and Abdul Mueed and Xu Jiadong", title = "An Automated Test Setup for the Characterization of Antenna in CATR", abstract = "This paper describes the development of a fully
automated measurement software for antenna radiation pattern
measurements in a Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR). The
CATR has a frequency range from 2-40 GHz and the measurement
hardware includes a Network Analyzer for transmitting and
Receiving the microwave signal and a Positioner controller to control
the motion of the Styrofoam column. The measurement process
includes Calibration of CATR with a Standard Gain Horn (SGH)
antenna followed by Gain versus angle measurement of the Antenna
under test (AUT). The software is designed to control a variety of
microwave transmitter / receiver and two axis Positioner controllers
through the standard General Purpose interface bus (GPIB) interface.
Addition of new Network Analyzers is supported through a slight
modification of hardware control module. Time-domain gating is
implemented to remove the unwanted signals and get the isolated
response of AUT. The gated response of the AUT is compared with
the calibration data in the frequency domain to obtain the desired
results. The data acquisition and processing is implemented in
Agilent VEE and Matlab. A variety of experimental measurements
with SGH antennas were performed to validate the accuracy of
software. A comparison of results with existing commercial
softwares is presented and the measured results are found to be
within .2 dBm.", keywords = "Antenna measurement, calibration, time-domain
gating, VNA, Positioner controller", volume = "6", number = "8", pages = "894-5", }