Title :
Radiation Patterns on a Budget: IEEE AP-S Student Design Challenge 2011
Author :
Temme, Andrew ; VanderLaan, Donald ; Zajac, Stephen
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI, USA
Abstract :
An important characteristic of an antenna is the radiation pattern, which determines in which direction(s) radiation is concentrated. Typical antenna radiation-pattern-measurement systems consist of measurement equipment and a controlled environment. Both of these elements can individually be prohibitively expensive, in terms of both cost and laboratory space. This paper outlines a low-cost (less than $1500) system for use at 2.4 GHz that is portable and requires a limited amount of space. Measurements are accomplished using a self-contained RF system, a simply constructed antenna rotator, a readily available data-acquisition and motor-controller circuit, and MA TLAB. A key feature of this system is an extremely low-cost and simple rotary joint, which eliminates cable twisting.
Keywords :
IEEE standards; UHF antennas; antenna radiation patterns; data acquisition; electrical engineering computing; mathematics computing; measurement systems; IEEE AP-S Student Design Challenge 2011; MATLAB; antenna radiation-pattern-measurement systems; antenna rotator; cable twisting elimination; controlled environment; data-acquisition; direction radiation; frequency 2.4 GHz; laboratory space; measurement equipment; motor-controller circuit; rotary joint; self-contained RF system; Antenna measurements; Antenna radiation patterns; Clamps; Gain measurements; Instrumentation; MATLAB; Radio frequency; Antenna measurements; IEEE AP-S Student Design Contest; IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society; antenna radiation patterns; computerized instrumentation; gain measurement; measurement techniques; student activities; student experiments;
Journal_Title :
Antennas and Propagation Magazine, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/MAP.2011.6138459
