On the Feasibility of the Three-Antenna Technique for Estimating Antenna Radiation Efficiency in Bluetest Reverberation Test Systems

Abstract

In wireless communications, antenna characteristics, especially antenna efficiency, are critical for connectivity and reliability. Despite the importance of this parameter, there are few methods for determining antenna efficiency without relying on a reference antenna with known efficiency. The three-antenna technique, an approach without a reference antenna, has already been proposed to measure antenna efficiency using the reverberation chamber at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In this paper, we focus on the implementation and evaluation of this technique to determine the radiation efficiency of antennas in the reverberation test systems (RTS) of Bluetest AB. We show that the radiation efficiency estimated using the three-antenna method is comparable to the corresponding values obtained from standard radiation efficiency measurements, as well as to the efficiencies reported by antenna manufacturers. In addition, we report the decay times for two RTS chambers avail-able at Bluetest's laboratory center. The enhanced backscatter parameter, which indicates how well a reverberation chamber is mode-stirred, is also compared for our systems.