A Capstone Design Project on the Development of a Prototype Near-Field Antenna Measurement System [Education Corner]

This article presents the capstone design project of four final-year electrical and computer engineering undergraduate students, which focused on the development of a nearfield antenna measurement system from the ground up. The aim of this article is 1) to demonstrate that a prototype near-field antenna measurement system can be developed as a final-year capstone design project and 2) to show that the development of such a prototype can engage students with a multidisciplinary engineering design. To this end, this article discusses all the subsystems designed by the students to achieve full functionality for this prototype near-field antenna measurement system. Finally, the experimental validation of the system is presented, along with discussions on how to use this system for educational and research activities.