Far-Field Antenna Pattern Reconstruction Through Front and Back Planar Near-Field Scanning

This paper introduces a method for obtaining the far-field radiation pattern for all elevation angles through planar near-field measurements of both the front and back sides of an antenna under test (AUT). To obtain near-field measurement data for both the front and back sides of the AUT, sequential measurements are performed for each side, and relative phase compensation is applied to correct the phase error between the two measurements. The phase compensated measurement data from both sides can be modeled as an infinitesimal dipole radiating the same near-field, allowing the far-field radiation pattern to be obtained. As a result of validating the proposed method, the radiation pattern showed sensitivity to noise due to the lower signal magnitude on the back side compared to the front, but the directivity demonstrated high accuracy.