Near field planar wave generation for electronic range testing

摘要

A near field planar wavefront generation method that uses a relatively small number (three to five) of transmitting antennas disposed a predetermined distance from an antenna array having a multi-wavelength aperture that is part of a system under test. The method creates a synthesized one-dimensional linear planar wavefront of radiation over at least ten wavelengths for testing the antenna array of the system under test. The planar wavefront is formed at a specific frequency and at predetermined distance from the transmitting antennas, typically in the range of from 100 to 200 feet. The transmitting antennas synthesize a plane wave with linear phase progression to simulate tilt variations. To achieve this, electromagnetic energy signals emitted by the respective transmitting antennas are amplitude and phase weighted to synthesize the one dimensional linear plane wave to produce a combined wavefront having a linear phase front across the aperture of the antenna array of the system under test. Additionally, the phase and amplitude weighting may be changed to fit the linear wavefront made incident upon the antenna array 15 of the system under test.