Near-Field Edge Extrapolation Using Auxiliary Dipoles to Improve Probe Compensation

Probe compensation is an essential element in near-field measurements when accurate fields are required. However, the accuracy of probe compensation techniques heavily depends on the accuracy of the used probe factor. A major source of errors in the probe factors used in scalar and vector compensation is the truncation error. Increasing the size of the measuring plane offers a solution, but is not practical in most cases. First, not every near-field scanner allows to measure a large area. Second, increasing the size of the measuring plane also increases the measurement time. In this paper, a novel method to reduce the influence of truncation errors on probe compensation is presented. The method uses auxiliary dipoles to extrapolate the measured near-field values of the reference structure(s) outside the measuring plane. The accuracy and effectiveness of the method is evaluated for both scalar and vector compensation algorithms.