Antenna measurement and diagnostics processing techniques using unmanned aerial vehicles

摘要

In-situ antenna measurements using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has become a research topic of great interest thanks to recent developments in UAV hardware and antenna measurement post-processing techniques for arbitrary geometry acquisition domains. Improvements in UAV positioning and geo-referring systems have enabled in-situ antenna measurements in the near field (NF) region of the Antenna Under Test (AUT). These NF measurements can be post-processed for antenna diagnostics and for radiation pattern evaluation. This contribution focuses on the analysis and comparison of post-processing techniques for in-situ antenna measurement using amplitude-only information, and the impact of the NF measurement domain in the post-processed results, namely aperture fields and radiation pattern. Two iterative phase retrieval techniques are compared using an offset reflector antenna as AUT.