Measurement and transformation of continuously modulated fields using a short-time measurement approach

Abstract

Near-field measurements, which are performed in-situ, may suffer from the fact that the antenna under test (AUT) cannot be accessed to transmit or receive a specifically tailored test signal. In some scenarios, it might also be desired to test the AUT during its real operation state, especially when it comes to the verification of antenna systems. Therefore, the need to handle time- and space-modulated fields in combination with a time-harmonic near-field to far-field transformation (NFFFT) arises. For the case where unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) carry the field probe in in-situ measurement scenarios, long observation times, required for the resolution of the frequency spectra of modulated fields, are detrimental due to the UAV movement resulting in blurred measurement positions. The short-time measurement (STM) approach, presented in this article, offers a way to transform the measured field data using a time-harmonic NFFFT with short observation times for the collection of the individual field samples. Measurements are shown which demonstrate the applicability of the STM approach for the measurement and transformation of continuously time-modulated fields in different measurement scenarios.