Cylindrical Near-field to Far-field Radiation Pattern Measurement System for a Large Mobile Phone Base Station Antenna

In this work, the cylindrical near-field (NF) to far-field (FF) radiation pattern measurement system for a large mobile phone base station antenna is proposed. The proposed cylindrical NF to FF measurement system consists of the horizontal scanner including the RF electric probe, and the rotating shaft for installation of an antenna under test (AUT). It is controlled by a central controlling unit (CCU). The scanner and the rotating shaft can be installed in a small radio frequency (RF) anechoic chamber room. The maximum scanning length capability is 4.7 meters with an angle of 360 degrees around the AUT. The NF to FF transformation program is also implemented by using the fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm. The commercial mobile base station antenna with a length of 2.574 meters is employed to verify the accuracy of the proposed system. It is found that the measured radiation pattern of the proposed measurement system and the reference measurement system are in good agreement.