Research on fast measurement method for active element pattern of phased array antenna

A novel fast measurement approach in the phase-shift measurement method to obtain the active element pattern in phased array antenna is investigated in this paper. The active element pattern is not only used in the process of solving each channel excitation, but also needed in the recovery of whole pattern. Since the accuracy of active element pattern will directly affects the precision of fast measurement results, it is more important to determine the active element pattern accurately compared with other measurement methods. In this paper, the elements in the phased array antenna are composed of half-wave dipoles, and a novel determination method of active element pattern which achieves accurate pattern calculations with less computer memory and computation time is introduced. The calculating formulas are presented, and the correctness along with the feasibility of this proposed method is verified and illustrated through experimental simulation.