This thesis proposes a near-field to far-field (NF-FF) transformation algorithm applicable to a movable spherical near-field measurement system for large antenna measurements, in which the probe arc is horizontally shifted outward from its reference p...
This thesis proposes a near-field to far-field (NF-FF) transformation algorithm applicable to a movable spherical near-field measurement system for large antenna measurements, in which the probe arc is horizontally shifted outward from its reference position. When the probe arc is shifted, the distance and observation angle between each probe and the antenna under test (AUT) deviate from their reference values. If these variations are not properly considered, the accuracy of the NF-FF transformation can be degraded.
The key idea of this study is to use the distance dependence of spherical waves to transform the electric field data measured at the shifted arc position C into an equivalent electric field at the reference-radius position B. This allows the conventional spherical wave expansion (SWE)-based NF-FF transformation procedure to be applied while accounting for the probe-wise variations in distance and observation angle caused by the arc movement.
The proposed method was evaluated through HFSS simulations under two frequency conditions of 1.8 GHz and 4.7 GHz and two arc shift conditions of 0.2 m and 0.4 m. Under all conditions, the transformed far-field results showed good agreement with the reference data, and this agreement was quantitatively confirmed using the equivalent noise level (ENL). The results demonstrate the feasibility of obtaining the far-field radiation characteristics of large antennas by shifting the probe arc without physically enlarging the measurement system.