Antenna Measurement Setup in the WM-570 and WM-380 Frequency Band

This paper presents an antenna measurement setup for characterizing the radiation behavior of antennas in the WM-570 frequency band (330 GHz to 500 GHz) and WM-380 frequency band (500 GHz to 750 GHz) in the far field. The measurement setup can be used to measure planar antenna prototypes quasi-in-air by contacting them with a WM-570 or WM-380 probe on a cantilever arm protruding into the free space as well as waveguide-based antennas and antennas of fully integrated transmitter modules. The electrical and mechanical design of the antenna measurement setup is described. In addition, the system dynamic range is discussed, from which the measurement range for the minimum and maximum gain of the antenna under test is derived. The parasitic radiation of the THz probe limits the lower limit of the antenna gain that can be measured with this setup. For this reason, the radiation behavior of FormFactor T-Wave probes is investigated in the frequency bands listed above. In radiation pattern measurements, ripples are caused by reflections from the waveguide components used on the receiver side of the measurement setup. These ripples are minimized by using plastic shields with elastomer absorbers, whose influence is investigated by measurements in this work.