Theoretic and experimental analysis of a reflector-backed dipole antenna for 1-3 GHz EMC test

Test antennas are widely used in EMC tests. Existing antennas are mostly designed for large bandwidth and high gain, thus an antenna height or position scanning is usually required for large EUTs. In this contribution, the illumination area of a test antenna is first discussed, and then uncorrelated and correlated sources of the EUT are introduced and analyzed. A short review is presented to show the capabilities of current reflector-backed dipole antennas, and then a new design is introduced. This antenna works in the frequency band of 1.0-3.0 GHz and has an illumination area of 120 cm×180 cm for 1 meter distance. Experiments are performed to verify its performance in radiation emission and radiation susceptibility tests. As the presented antenna has a very compact size, the measurement distance could be reduced to achieve higher field strength for small EUTs. The ideal antenna provides a uniform field with theoretically largest strength, a figure of merit is defined by the ratio of field strength between test antenna and ideal antenna. With this tool, a reference antenna is not required in the RS tests.