A fast method for measuring the pattern of an array antenna in near-field

A fast method based on unit current reconstruction for measuring the pattern of an array antenna in near-field is presented. The basic thought of this method is to reconstruct the current distribution of the array antenna and then obtain the far-field pattern of the array antenna by measuring the amplitude and phase of the radiation near-field with less sampling points, in the case of the known basic structure and component units of the array antenna. This measurement speed can be ten times faster than the ordinary near-field measurement speed. Therefore, the method presented in this paper is quite suitable for the near-field measurement of the large phased array antenna.