A Portable Cost-Effective Amplitude and Phase Antenna Measurement System

Abstract

This article presents a simple, cost-effective system for complex measurements of the field radiated by an antenna. In particular, the proposed architecture is based on an array of antenna probes connected to a set of phase difference detectors and a power detector. Phase difference measurements are processed to recover the phase of the antenna under test. The main novelty of the proposed system is that it does not require regular sampling, making it suitable for in situ antenna measurements. The influence of parameters, such as the number of antennas composing the array and hence the number of phase difference detectors) and the positioning errors, is analyzed. The proposed architecture, implemented with off-the-shelf hardware, has been assessed for antenna measurement and diagnostics. A discussion of the issues related to the implementation of the system has been included, as well as the proposed solutions to improve its accuracy. Finally, diagnostics and radiation pattern measurement results are compared with those calculated with other phaseless techniques.