Smart Characterization of an AESA Radar Front-End by Non-Redundant Near-Field Measurements [Measurements Corner]

Despite of the large amount of supporting literature and the significant benefits, up-to-date non-redundant sampling strategies for antenna testing by near-field measurements are not used in an industrial context. The experimental validation of active electronic scanned antennas (AESA) is still performed by using traditional regular sampling strategies. In this paper, the factors that have limited the diffusion of the non-redundant sampling approaches to the industrial world are analyzed and discussed. The successful applicability to actual radar antennas, of interest for industrial applications, is then demonstrated.