Millimeter-Wave Phaseless Antenna Measurement Based on a Modified Off-Axis Holography Setup

Abstract

A novel scheme for planar near-field phaseless antenna measurement based on off-axis holography is presented. Separation of the image terms of the hologram is artificially increased by multiplexing the measurements of two sub-sampled holograms generated with two 180° phase-shifted reference waves. Combination of both sub-sampled holograms produces replicas of the image terms at half a period distance of the originals in the spectral domain, while the amplitude of the original image terms is highly reduced, easing the filtering process of the desired replica. The higher separation of the image terms reduces overlapping making the method suitable also for the characterization of medium and low gain antennas in the near-field. As the separation is artificially increased, the reference antenna can be placed close to the antenna under test allowing to reduce the scan distance and the sensitivity to scan axis errors. Nevertheless, spatial multiplexing requires the retrieved data to be spatially low-pass filtered to remove the effect of the aliasing. Mirror reflection is used for illuminating the acquisition plane with the reference wave, being the phase shift achieved by means of a mechanical displacement of the mirror. The effect of the location of the reference antenna on the position and shape of the image terms and their replicas has been studied through numerical simulations for a setup in the W-band. Experimental validation of the method is presented for the characterization of three different antennas at 94 GHz.