A method to quantify the radiation characteristics of an unknown interference source

Abstract

From introduction: A new method for determining the radiation characteristics of leakage from electronic equipment for interference studies is described in this report. Basically, an unintentional leakage source is considered to be electrically small, and may be characterized by three equivalent orthogonal electric dipole moments and three equivalent orthogonal magnetic dipole moments. When an unknown source object is placed at the center of a transverse electromagnetic (TEM) cell, its radiated energy couples into the fundamental transmission mode and propagates toward the two output ports of the TEM cell. With a hybrid junction inserted into a loop connecting the cell output ports, one is able to measure the sum and difference powers and the relative phase between the sum and difference outputs. Systematic measurements of these powers and phases at six different source object positions, based on a well-developed theory, are sufficient to determine the amplitudes and phases of the unknown component dipole moments, from which the detailed free-space radiation pattern of the unknown source and the total radiated power can be determined. Results of simulated theoretical examples and an experiment using a spherical dipole radiator are given to illustrate the theory and measurement procedure.