The effect of a finite conductivity ground plane on open area site attenuation

Abstract

The FCC and European Community Standards require radiated emission testing to be conducted at an open area test site where the device being tested and the receiving antenna are placed over a metal ground plane. The calibration of this site is called normalized site attenuation and is specified in ANSI Standard 053.4.. The procedure outlined in C63.4 is based on a model with a perfectly (conducting ground plane of infinite extent. This paper addresses the question of the effects of finite conductivity of the real the ground plane on site attenuation. In particular, it describes site attenuation simulations over infinitely large copper and steel planes as well as a soil model. The results show that finite conductivity ground planes are almost as good as infinite ones as long as they are metal.