An alternative plane wave synthesis method for Fresnel-zone antenna measurements

Abstract

It has been demonstrated that the method of successive projections applied to plane wave synthesis yields a fast and effective method for analyzing Fresnel-zone data. In particular, compact range performance can be simulated without the need for a large reflector, at the cost of an increased number of azimuth scans. As an example, for a range length of 320 lambda , 21 scans may be used to achieve a 40- lambda -diameter plane wave region with root-mean-square phase and amplitude errors less than 1 degrees and 0.1 dB, respectively. Such an accurate plane wave is seldom required for normal antenna measurements, and some accuracy may be sacrificed to reduce the number of azimuth scans.<>