The UCLA bi-polar planar-near-field antenna-measurement and diagnostics range

The Electrical Engineering Department at UCLA has enjoyed the use of a new six-story building, Engineering IV, since 1989. Many exciting electromagnetic-research activities are being conducted within this building. The authors concentrate on the antenna-measurement research activities, and provide information on the design and development of a unique planar-near-field range. They have received a considerable amount of interest in the bipolar near-field method since the publication of a two-part paper (Williams et al. 1994, and Yaccarino et al. 1994). They decided to prepare the present paper in order to provide a more-tutorial description, and to present detailed measured data, images, and implementation particularities. The reader will find numerous sidebars distributed throughout the article that highlight some selected topics in planar-near-field measurements, which may be of particular interest to those readers who have not been directly involved in using or developing near-field-measurement ranges.