Time-Domain Methodology for the Relatively Low-Frequency Characterization of Large Antennas

Frequency-domain measurement techniques in an enclosed area suffer from some limitations when dealing with antennas of large physical dimensions or when operating in the low-frequency range. This paper presents a measurement test bench for antenna characterization based on outdoor time-domain measurements. The setup is applied to ultra-wide-band and narrow-band antennas yielding good far-field antenna characterization results as compared to standard measurement techniques. This approach employs a near-field to far-field transformation technique to obtain the radiation pattern of any radiating structure over a wide band of frequencies, from a single time-domain near-field data acquisition. The suggested approach offers significant savings in installation and material cost, in addition to a considerable reduction in measurement time.