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

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

fYear

2011

fDate

10-13 Oct. 2011

Firstpage

1277

Lastpage

1280

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; aperture antennas; radiofrequency interference; shielding; RFI; THACO; Y-factor; active antenna arrays; array noise temperatures; cold load; cold noise sources; cold sky; hot load; hot noise sources; noise performance characterization; outdoor test facility; shielding effect; small aperture arrays; temperature 293 K to 298 K; temperature 50 K; Antenna arrays; Antenna measurements; Frequency measurement; Noise; Noise measurement; Reflector antennas; Temperature measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Conference (EuMC), 2011 41st European

Conference_Location

Manchester

Print_ISBN

978-1-61284-235-6

Type

conf

Filename

6101752