APplication Of Mathematical Absorber Reflection suppression to planar near-field antenna measurements

Nearly all antenna measurements are contaminated to some degree with fields scattered by objects within the environment of the test system. In many instances these reflections (i.e. multi-path) are found to constitute one of the most significant contributors to the facility-level error budget. For some time, a frequency domain measurement and post-processing technique named Mathematical Absorber Reflection Suppression (MARS) has been successfully used to reduce range multi-path effects within spherical and cylindrical near-field antenna measurement systems. More recently, a related technique has been developed for use with planar near-field antenna measurement systems. This paper provides an introduction to the measurement technique and novel probe pattern corrected near-field to far-field transform algorithm. It then presents the most recent results of an on-going validation campaign which have been found to yield improvements comparable to those attained with the corresponding spherical and cylindrical MARS implementations. These results are discussed and conclusions presented.