A built-in performance-monitoring/fault isolation and correction (PM/FIC) system for active phased-array antennas

A built-in performance-monitoring/fault isolation and correction (PM/FIC) system for an active phased-array antenna has been developed and tested. This PM/FIC system employs a transmission line signal injector embedded at the radiating aperture together with a phase-toggling technique for signal detection. Hardware components for a demonstration test-array have been developed, fabricated, and assembled. Eight active elements are fed by four dual-channel transmit/receive (T/R) modules in a column array. Far-field range tests and fault correction tests have also been performed to demonstrate the PM/FIC functions on this test array. Good results have been obtained from these tests. The measurement accuracy of the phase-toggling method is compared with an HP8510 measurement system.<
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