A Two-Port Model for Antennas in a Reverberation Chamber

We present an improved model for characterizing fundamental antenna parameters based on the concept of a passive realizable two-port network. The proposed model is consistent with circuit theory-based approaches and allows for quantitative description and subsequent experimental determination of antenna efficiency, loss, and mismatch. A derivation of the model is given along with a discussion of the implications of the model. In addition, we discuss how the model behaves in a low-loss reverberation chamber, and give analytical and numerical methods for estimating the parameters of the model in a low-loss environment. An application of the proposed antenna model is shown to yield a lower bound for an antenna's radiation efficiency, although this bound is useful only when the losses in the chamber are sufficiently low. Derivation and application of the model is carried out in the context of a reverberation chamber, but the results are potentially applicable to an arbitrary environment.