Rapid low‐cost measurement of base‐station antennas in a compact environment

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe propose a low‐cost measurement technique of commercially available base‐station antenna in a compact experimental setting, which may be considerably smaller than the far‐field distance. An α‐variable positioner was utilized with Fresnel‐to‐far‐field transformation method. Compared with conventional near‐field measurements, the technique described here allows for more rapid scanning and transformations. The experimental results show good agreement between the results measured at the far‐field and that found using the Fresnel‐to‐far‐field transformation. The experimental validity for commercial base‐station antenna has been successfully shown for the first time as far as our knowledge, so that the proposed technique can be easily applied in small anechoic chambers, which are typically possessed by small‐/medium‐sized companies. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:2617–2622, 2015