A general technique to correct probe position errors in planar near-field measurements to arbitrary accuracy

A general theoretical procedure is presented to remove known probe-position errors when planar near-field data are transformed to the far field. The measured data are represented as a Taylor series whose terms contain the error function and the ideal spectrum of the antenna. This representation is then assumed to be an actual near-field existing on an error-free regularly spaced two-dimensional scan plane. By inverting the Taylor series, the ideal spectrum in terms of the measured data and the position errors is obtained. The solution is given by an infinite series of an error operator acting on data containing errors of measurement. This error operator is the Taylor series without the zeroth-order term. The nth order approximation to the ideal near-field of the antenna can be explicitly constructed by inspection of the structure of the error operator. Convergence of the approximation is examined. Computer simulations are used to demonstrate the excellent results obtained with this technique, as well as to demonstrate the convergence of the error-corrected fields to the true solution