Rapid Test Method for Multi-Beam Profile of Phased Array Antennas.

Qingchun Luo,Francesco De Paulis,Yihong Qi,Yantao Zhou,Lie Liu,Pu Ye

doi:10.3390/s22010047

Qingchun Luo, Francesco De Paulis + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/s22010047

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Abstract

The measurement of the phased array antenna (PAA) is completely different from the traditional antenna, due to its multi beam patterns. Usually, each beam pattern of the PAA needs a separate measurement, which makes the overall time extremely long. Thus, the traditional method can no longer meet the efficiency and cost requirements of new PAA measurement. In this paper, a pattern reconstruction method is proposed which significantly reduce the measurement time of multi-beam PAAs. With the known array element patterns (AEP) and theoretical weighted port excitation of the beams, any beam pattern can be predicted by measuring only a certain beam pattern, due to the element excitation coefficient (including the matching, mutual coupling, and manufacturing factors, etc.) of the specific PAA being calculated. The approach has low reconstruction error in term of beam pointing accuracy, side lobe, and co-polar and cross-polar patterns while being validated for large scanning range. Through theoretical derivation and experiments, the effectiveness of the method is verified, and the testing efficiency of the phased array antenna can be improved by 10 times or even more.

Highlights

IntroductionDue to its high gain and adjustable beam pointing characteristics, phased array antennas are widely used in mobile and satellite communications, radars (for automotive sensing and unmanned aerial vehicles), as well as in military and meteorological applications [1,2,3,4,5,6]
Due to its high gain and adjustable beam pointing characteristics, phased array antennas are widely used in mobile and satellite communications, radars, as well as in military and meteorological applications [1,2,3,4,5,6].Innovations in materials and manufacturing processes (AIP) have improved phased array antenna performance and reduced costs dramatically, allowing it to be widely used [7], which results in massive production and measurement demand of phased array antennas (PAAs)
It becomes a great challenge to the traditional antenna measurement method since the measurement time of PAA will drastically increase comparing with that of conventional antennas [8,9]

Summary

Introduction

Due to its high gain and adjustable beam pointing characteristics, phased array antennas are widely used in mobile and satellite communications, radars (for automotive sensing and unmanned aerial vehicles), as well as in military and meteorological applications [1,2,3,4,5,6]. A model-based source reconstruction method [19,20,21,22] is proposed to predict the desired beam patterns, which greatly reduce measurement time of multi beam PPAs. The far-field pattern of a PPA is considered to be a summation of the weighted active element patterns (AEPs) [23]. Only one beam pattern needs to be measured to calculate the excitation coefficient C, and arbitrary beam pattern of the PPA can be predicted This method dramatically reduces the beam patterns measurement amount than other pattern reconstruction method, especially in the case of large array.

Theory and Methods

DisMcueasssuiroedn

Conventional Method

Findings

Conclusions