Calibrating a phased array antenna is reduced from hours to minutes.
Keysight Technologies, an electronic testing and measurement equipment provider, introduces a phased array antenna control and calibration solution, a part of its antenna measurement toolset, for satellite communication. It enables over-the-air (OTA) control and calibration of phased array antennae.
Satellite communication requires higher frequencies and uses active phased array antenna systems. Phased array antennas use electronic means to steer beams to precise locations to improve overall reliability. Testing these systems is a complex and time-consuming task. The system enables satellite designers developing active electronically scanned arrays to rapidly test their designs during early validation.
The phased array calibration algorithms (proprietary) enable measurement of gain and phase for a single phased array element under test in an indirect far field test environment. Control over phased array and beam-forming chipsets can be established through Standard Commands for Programmable Instrumentation (SCPI) command set.
It enables various tests including effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP), radiation pattern versus beam scan angle, beam scan and range loss, cross-polarization isolation, gain compression, gain-over-noise temperature (G/T), and modulation distortion (error vector magnitude or EVM).
It features a user-friendly software interface for temperature and range control. It can be added to existing anechoic chambers along with the addition of a PNA-X vector network analyser. It improves pointing accuracy and sidelobe rejection to reduce interference effects.
