Multiple sources used to improve the field uniformity in reverberation chamber

Traditional reverberation chambers (RCs) are excited by continuous waves, with one or two mechanical stirrers in the chamber to stir the boundary conditions of the electromagnetic field. While, due to the time of mechanical stirring is far more than the duration of short high-power microwave (HPM) pulse, it is not suitable to use mechanical stirring in the RC with such pulse excitation. This paper studies the method of source stirring in the RC, especially using multiple sources to improve the field uniformity, which is useful to research the HPM effect on the subsystems such as electronic or electric equipments. Firstly, the factors that may affect the field distributions are summarized, according to the Maxwell´s equations in ideal rectangular resonators. Then the focus is on the effects of multiple sources on the electromagnetic field distributions, including the maximum and the standard deviation of electric field strength and the isotropy as well. The results show that using multiple sources can improve the field uniformity effectively and it is feasible to make a homogenous electromagnetic field environment for HPM effect tests on subsystems.