Measurement of electrically large array antennas in small anechoic chambers

Abstract

A post-processing procedure that yields accurate array-antenna radiation-pattern estimaions is described. By resorting to this strategy, measurements of large array antennas inside small anechoic chambers become feasible. The method employs an adequate phase-correction derived from an optical ray approach, under the assumption that teh elementary radiators themselves are electrically small and van be measured under far-field conditions inside the relevant anechoic chamber. The effectiveness of the proposed thecnique is demonstrated by examing the case of nonuniform linear array antenna.