GlobalStar II RX L-Band Antenna Spherical Near Field Measurement

摘要

Thales Alenia Space is in charge for the development, integration and production of the whole Global Star II satellite constellation. To support the production of the RX L-Band Active Antennas, a new Spherical Near test facility was developed and installed at Thales Alenia Space Italy premises. This paper gives an inter-comparison of the measurement results obtained among three facilities that are a Test Range installed at TAS-France, a Spherical Near-Field already available at TAS-Italy and the new SNF facility. The test comparison has been considered as a part the new SNF facility validation. In particular the comparisons of copolar and crosspolar patterns, peak directivity and general Antenna performances are shown. The 18 terms technique, for the evaluation of the measurement error, was used to justify the differences between the measurement data obtained from the three facilities. In Addition a general description of the test setup and the principle error sources found during the finalization of the test setup are given.