Spherical near field testing of small antennas from 800MHz to 18GHz

Small antennas and other modern antenna applications are using increasingly higher frequencies while demanding very rapid development and testing cycles. A fast, reliable and accurate way to exhaustively determine antenna performance is based on spherical near field measurement techniques combined with probe array technology. This paper describes the innovative design aspects of the evolved measurement system and present results from the validation campaign. The use of diagnostic and analysis software modules for efficient antenna testing is also presented.