Study of radiation characteristics for reflector antennas using the planar near-field measurements of primary feed with area truncation level

Abstract

We study an analysis method for radiation characteristics of reflector antennas using measurement values from planar near-field antenna measurement (NFAM) of a primary feed. In planar NFAM, area truncation error (ATE) is an important error factor which must be considered. However, the effects of ATE are not clear in this analysis method. In this paper, we clarify the influence of area truncation level (ATL) on radiation characteristics for this analysis method by simulation. We use an offset parabola antenna, and compare the results using this analysis method and the physical optics method (PO), taking the edge level (EL) of the reflector and ATL as parameters.