Digital Array Calibration Utilizing A Reduced Scale Planar Near-Field Measurement Method

The cost and time required to calibrate phased arrays increases with the number of antenna elements. In this work we determine amplitude and phase calibration coefficients for an element-level digital linear receive array antenna by applying a reduced scale planar near-field measurement method. As the linear array is steered in one dimension, the measurement plane is reduced to a single dimension. Due to the element-level digital architecture, calibration time is further reduced as all elements are calibrated in a single scan. The extracted calibration coefficients are applied to the array element patterns and produce a steerable beam pattern.