Assembling, calibrating and testing a phased array in two separate halves

A phased array was recently assembled, calibrated and tested in two separate halves due to test facility limitations. This unique method has many advantages for future phased array production as it allows arrays of any size to be calibrated and tested to a very high accuracy, which results in decreased sidelobe level, beam pointing error, and increased directivity. This technique takes a major step toward removing limitations on the size of phased arrays that can be characterized in a Near-Field Range (NFR). Many issues needed to be considered since full array performance had to be characterized before the two halves were married together. The major topics that this paper explores are a pattern summation algorithm, whether or not dummy elements are necessary during testing, and both electrical and mechanical misalignment of the two halves.