NEAR-FIELD TECHNIQUE FOR INFERRING APERTURE ANTENNA RADIATION PATTERNS

A. R. Jamieson, B.E., Ph.D., and R. H. T. Bates,D.Sc.(Eng.), C.Eng., F.I.E.E. Indexing terms: Antenna-radiation patterns, Waveguide antennas Abstract The method of Brown and Jull for inferring the far field from the near field has been extended to arbitrary antennas, with measurements made in one plane only. The primary concern has been with aperture antennas. The theory of the computational reduction of the measured data has been obtained. The results of a practical application of this nearfield technique (n.f.t.) to a circular-waveguide-aperture antenna are described. The modal distribution in the waveguide aperture is estimated. This distribution has been substituted into a variational expression for the waveguide admittance. The result is close to the measured value, thereby confirming the accuracy of the n.f .t. Introduction In general, the two chief difficulties associated with the direct measurement of far-field radiation patterns of antennas are (a) obtaining a measurement range long enough to satisfy the far-field criterion1 (b) preventing extraneous reflections from introducing
errors of unacceptable magnitude into the measurement. For antennas having radiation patterns with wide main beams, difficulty (a) is negligible. However, difficulty (b) is sometimes worse than for high-gain antennas, because wide-beam radiation patterns have, by definition, appreciable magnitudes in most directions. The inconvenience of the measurement is often accentuated when the antenna is mounted on a ground plane, the edge currents of which usually have a significant effect because a practical ground plane is of finite size. In the near field, however, the direct radiation from the antenna predominates over the secondary effects, and it can be sampled accurately and with minimum disturbance by using small probes. When there is a ground plane, it shields the measurement apparatus from the radiation field and offers an ideal support for the probes. In the full-length paper, it is demonstrated that the near-field measurements can be operated on computationally to infer uniquely the far-field radiation pattern of an antenna. Previous near-field techniques have relied on the asymptotic-series method2>3 or the Fourier-analysis method of Brown and Jull.4>5 The latter, although originally suggested for 2-dimensional problems, can be extended to three dimensions by representing the fields in terms of spherical-wave functions. However, this has the inherent practical disadvantage of requiring measurements of the near field to be performed over a spherical surface enclosing the aerial. 3-dimensional extensions of Brown and Jull's method have been presented by James and Longdon6 and Jensen 7 in terms of matrix techniques. In the full-length paper, we introduce a near-field technique (n.f.t.), which we formulate for arbitrary-aperture antennas. We show that 3-dimensional radiation patterns can be inferred from limited near-field measurements performed in one plane. We show that the aperture fields can be estimated using the n.f.t. We discuss the accuracy of the n.f.t. with particular regard to the sampling of the near field, using shielded-loop probes of the type shown in Fig. 1. In the remainder of this summary, we describe the results of an application of the n.f.t. to a circular-waveguide antenna with an aperture diameter of two-thirds of a wavelength set in a 2 m-square ground plane and operating at 2 GHz.

mounting flange nominal 5Ofl coaxial airline^

gap mean radius = _*_at 2GHz) 6O

Measurements and results The only propagating mode supported by the waveguide of radius a is the TE1X mode, oriented with respect to the coordinates of Fig. 1 so that the electric field is proportional to cos (/>. Outside the hemisphere of radius R concentric with the mouth of the waveguide, the field radiated by the waveguide can be represented by a series of outgoing spherical vector modes possessing electric fields that have 6 components varying as cos <f>. Denote by a n and b n , respectively, the expansion coefficients (complex modal amplitudes) of the TE and TM modes. In the full-length paper, it is shown that the symmetry of the circular waveguide ensures that
= b2n+i = 0

to detector
circular waveguide supporting TE mode

Fig.l
Antenna,ground plane, co-ordinates and shielded loop probe

Two components,^ and Hp,of the magnetic intensity are measured at a number (nine in our experiments) of points on the ground plane. It was found convenient for these points to be equispaced on the straight lines ( / > = 0 and TT/2 for the measurement of Hfi and H^, respectively. The measurement error was estimated to be less than 5%. The nine measurements of each component of the magnetic intensity were grouped in subsets of eight; i.e. eight field values were chosen in C | ways. The nine sets of modal amplitudes computed (as described in the full-length paper) from these subsets were averaged. The computed values of the first 15 amplitudes are given in Table 1 together with their standard deviations expressed as a percentage of the mean magnitude of each amplitude. The first amplitude was normalised to unity. Note that it is more difficult to compute accurately the amplitudes of the higher-order modes, since they contribute less significantly to the radiated field. The 183

Summary M34. The manuscript of the complete paper .which was received on 3rd November 1971, has been deposited in the IEE Library. A photocopy of the manuscript may be purchased at a price of 3'90 Dr. Jamieson is with the New Zealand Post Office Radio Section, PO Box 9343, Wellington, New Zealand, and Dr. Bates is with the Electrical Engineering Department, University of Canterbury, Christ church, New Zealand PROC.IEE, Vol. 120, No. 2, FEBRUAR Y 1973

far-field radiation patterns, computed using the modal amplitudes given in Table 1, a r e shown in Fig. 2. To demonstrate that 15 modes a r e sufficient to characterise the far-field patterns almost completely, the patterns a r e also plotted

in the antenna aperture are estimated to be as shown in Table 2. To provide an experimental check on the accuracy of the method, the voltage-reflection coefficient T of the antenna

TABLE 1 MODAL AMPLITUDES OF THE FIRST 15 SPHERICAL MODES Magnitude

a

Phase deg 0 -142 106 30 -16 -45 -62 -73

Standard deviation % 0 3-7 7-8 10-5 15-9 28-2 43-6 60-5

b

Magnitude
2

Phase -165 67 31 -98 -146 175 139

Standard deviation % 1-3 4-0 9-1 19-8 37-1 52-0 47-6

l a 3 a 5 a 7 a 9 a il a i3

1-0

a 15

0-2237 0-4683 0-6096 0-3660 0-8967 0-8379 0-2371

b4 b_ b bl2
Di A

X 10"! X 10-2 X IO-3 X 10-5 X lO"7 X 10-9

0-4239 0-9326 0-1412 0-1139 0-4177 0-6376 0-3786

X X X X X X

io-i io-i

10-2 10~4 10-6 10-8

H plane patterns

1 0

E plane patterns

patterns from / / 91 Tables 2 and 4 / / If 0-6 identical^^ / / a

/i

W
0-8

was measured using a small electric probe one-thirtieth of a wavelength long, inserted into the waveguide through small holes at three points. The measured T was compared with the values computed by substituting the amplitudes in Table 2 into an accurate variational expression for the aperture admittance, which is given in the Appendix to the full-length paper. This comparison is summarised in Table 3 for various numbers of the lower-order modes.

/ft
/

If

jf

0-4

TABLE 2 NORMALISED RELATIVE AMPLITUDES OF THE TANGENTIAL APERTURE ELECTRIC FIELDS OF THE LOWERORDER APERTURE MODES Modal amplitudes .

i //
i/ l^r
90

0-2

Mode designation
TE TE T E 13 TM", TM 12

Magnitude
1 0-2380 0.01916 0-4383 0-08175

Phase
deg 0 0 0 180 180

yy 1 .
60

1 .
30

0 30 60 90

elevation angle 6 ,deg Fig. 2 Far-field radiation patterns

x dominant TElxwaveguide

mode two spherical modes (from Table 1) seven spherical modes (from Table 1) - O - 15 spherical modes (from Table 1) - A - King amplitudes from Table 2 amplitudes from Table 4 using only the two largest and the seven largest of the amplitudes given in Table 1. Fig. 2 also shows the forms the radiation patterns (computed using Silver's aperture-field method 8 ) would have if, as has been assumed in most applications of Schwinger's variational method, 9 the TE 1X mode was the only waveguide mode in the antenna aperture. It is patent from Fig. 2 that several waveguide modes must be taken into account in an accurate variational treatment. A direct experimental check on the computed patterns is not possible, since there a r e no recorded measurements of the far-field patterns of a circular waveguide antenna mounted in a ground plane with the experiment arranged so that the ground-plane edge effects a r e removed. However, Kingi has published measured patterns for a circular horn excited in the T E n mode with an aperture diameter of 1-4 wavelengths and a flare angle of approximately 10. These patterns, which are also shown in Fig. 2, confirm the general forms of the patterns computed for the circular-waveguide antenna. The two antennas have similar field distributions, but the horn has a larger aperture, and therefore radiates a narrower beam, which exhibits a sidelobe structure. Using a matrix-inversion procedure (described in the fulllength paper) the relative amplitudes of the waveguide modes 184

The actual amplitude of the.TE x l mode is (1 + T), where V is the reflection coefficient of the TE, J T mode
n

TABLE 3 MEASURED AND COMPUTED REFLECTION COEFFICIENTS

Reflection coefficient

Modes included in
computation Measured TElt TE11>TMll TE^TE^.TM^ TE 1 1 ,TE 1 2 , TM l l f TM 1 2

Magnitude 0-416 0-472 0-614 0-360 0-364

Phase deg 164 -148 -148

141 135

Discussion

The n.f.t. gives the far field accurately from computations

that involve few numerical difficulties. However, as Table 3 emphasises, the aperture-field distribution is not given very accurately by a direct application of the n.f.t. Fig. 2 and PROC.IEE, Vol.. 120, No.2, FEBRUARY 1973

Table 3 indicate that the higher-order modes have significant effects on the radiation pattern and the reflection coefficient. The first two higher-order modes ( T E ^ and TMX1) are the most important. An improved estimate (Table 4) of their TABLE 4 ESTIMATED MODAL AMPLITUDES OF DOMINANT MODE AND FIRST TWO HIGHER-ORDER MODES Modal amplitudes Mode designation TE TE TM l i Magnitude 1 0-2925 0-5875 Phase deg 0 0 180

H plane pattern due to the amplitudes given in Table 1 and that due to the TE,, mode alone. J n Acknowledgment A. R. Jamieson wishes to acknowledge the financial assistance of the NZ University Grants Committee and the New Zealand Post Office. References BLAKEY, J. R.: 'Near-field measurements and the determination of aerial patterns', Radio & Electron. Eng., 1964,26, pp. 295-301 2 BATES, R. H. T., and ELLIOT, J.: 'The determination of the true sidelobe level of long broadside arrays from radiation pattern measurements made in the Fresnel region', Proc. IEE, 1956,103C, pp. 307-312 3 BICKMORE, R. W.: 'Fraunhofer pattern measurements in the Fresenel zone', Can. J. Phys., 1957,35,pp. 12991308 4 BROWN, J., and JULL, E. V.: 'The prediction of aerial radiation patterns from near field measurements', Proc. IEE, 1961,108B, pp. 635-644 5 JULL, E. V.: 'An investigation of near field radiation patterns measured with large antennas,' IRE Trans, 1962, AP-10, pp. 363-368 6 JAMES, J. R., and LONGDON, L. W.: 'Prediction of arbitrary electromagnetic fields from measured data,' Alta Freq., 1969,38, pp. 286-290 7 JENSEN, F.: 'Electromagnetic near field-far field correlations', Technical University of Denmark Laboratory for Electromagnetic Theory report LD15, Lyngby, 1970 8 SILVER, S.: 'Microwave antenna theory and design' (McGraw-Hill, 1949) 9 LEVINE, H. and SCHWINGER, J. 'On the theory of electromagnetic wave diffraction by an aperture in an infinite plane conducting screen', Comm. Pure & Appl. Math., 1950,3, pp.355-391 10 KING, A. P.: 'The radiation characteristics of conical horn antennas', Proc. Inst. Radio. Eng., 1950,38, pp. 249251 1

amplitudes is made by finding the best fit between the far field obtained from the n.f.t. and the far field due to the dominant mode TE X1 together with these two higher-order modes. Table 4 confirms the accuracy of the n.f. t., since the reflection coefficient corresponding to its modal amplitudes, computed using the variational expression, is found to be 0*416/139, which is close to the measured value of 0-416/164. On comparing these two values of the reflection coefficient with the calculated value based on the TE1X mode alone (see Table 3), it is apparent that the aperture-field distribution defined by the amplitudes shown in Table 4 is a significantly better approximation to the actual aperture field than the commonly used assumption that the TE1X mode alone is sufficient. This is confirmed by the E plane farfield patterns computed from the amplitudes given in Tables 2 and 4. Even though there are significant differences between these patterns and those computed from the amplitudes given in Table l,the discrepancy is much less than that between the E plane pattern due to the TE X1 mode alone and the E plane pattern due to the amplitudes given in Table 1. There is no corresponding improvement in the H plane patterns because there are no great differences between the

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