A Two-Port Model for Antennas in a Reverberation Chamber

We present an improved model for characterizing fundamental antenna parameters based on the concept of a passive realizable two-port network. The proposed model is consistent with circuit theory-based approaches and allows for quantitative description and subsequent experimental determination of antenna efficiency, loss, and mismatch. A derivation of the model is given along with a discussion of the implications of the model. In addition, we discuss how the model behaves in a low-loss reverberation chamber, and give analytical and numerical methods for estimating the parameters of the model in a low-loss environment. An application of the proposed antenna model is shown to yield a lower bound for an antenna´s radiation efficiency, although this bound is useful only when the losses in the chamber are sufficiently low. Derivation and application of the model is carried out in the context of a reverberation chamber, but the results are potentially applicable to an arbitrary environment.