Required bandwidth for time-domain measurement of the quality factor of reverberation chambers

The dependence of the quality factor (Q) of a reverberation chamber as measured using a time-domain approach on the total bandwidth included in the time-domain signal has been investigated. Time-domain measurement of the Q factor of a mechanically stirred, metal cavity has been been performed using synthesized pulses of different bandwidth with the cavity both loaded and unloaded by absorbing material. The results show that the bandwidth does not need to be sufficiently large to give an equivalent pulse duration that is shorter than the wall scattering time to give an accurate measurement of the quality factor.