Wide band dual polarized probes for near and farfield measurement systems

Dual polarized probes for modern high precision measurement systems have strict requirements in terms of pattern shape, polarization purity, return loss and port-to-port isolation. A desired feature of a good probe is that the useable bandwidth should exceed that of the antenna under test so that probe mounting and alignment is performed only once during a measurement campaign. As a consequence, the probe design is a trade-off between performance requirements and the usable bandwidth of the probe. A new probe technology has been developed capable of achieving 1:4 bandwidth while maintaining the high performance of traditional probe designs [1-4]. This paper describes the new probe technology and discusses the application of these probes in spherical near field and traditional far field measurement systems.