THACO: A test facility for characterizing the noise performance of active antenna arrays

Author

Woestenburg, E.E.M. ; Bakker, L. ; Ruiter, M. ; Ivashina, M.V. ; Witvers, R.H.

Author_Institution

ASTRON, Netherlands Inst. for Radio Astron., Dwingeloo, Netherlands

fYear

2011

fDate

12-14 Oct. 2011

Firstpage

389

Lastpage

392

Abstract

This paper discusses an outdoor test facility for the noise characterization of active antenna arrays, using measurement results of array noise temperatures in the order of 50 K for a number of small aperture arrays. The measurement results are obtained by a Y-factor method with hot and a cold noise sources, with an absorber at room temperature as the hot load and the cold sky as the cold load. The effect of shielding the arrays by the test facility, with respect to noise and RFI from the environment, will also be discussed.

Keywords

active antenna arrays; antenna testing; aperture antennas; electromagnetic shielding; radiofrequency interference; RFI; THACO; Y-factor method; active antenna arrays; aperture arrays; array noise temperatures; array shielding; cold noise source; hot noise source; noise performance characterization; outdoor test facility; temperature 50 K; Antenna arrays; Antenna measurements; Frequency measurement; Noise; Noise measurement; Reflector antennas; Temperature measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Radar Conference (EuRAD), 2011 European

Conference_Location

Manchester

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-1156-5

Type

conf

Filename

6101027