Pattern Reconstruction of 3-D Modular Antennas by Means of a Non-Redundant Near-Field Spherical Scan

A very flexible source model is proposed here to reduce the volumetric redundancy when considering the pattern reconstruction of three-dimensional modular antennas by means of a near-field spherical scan using a non-redundant sampling representation. Since this last facet is based on the appropriate choice of antenna model for the evaluation of the optimal parameters to be used, the proposed geometry guaranteed the minimum number of needed samples and then a significant time saved for data acquisition on the near-field spherical grid. Then, an optimal interpolation algorithm used these non-redundant samples for an accurate evaluation of the near-field data that were usable in the classical near-field to far-field transformation. The reliability and accuracy of the reconstruction process were proven by means of numerical tests. These last showed a remarkable reduction (about 53%) in needed near-field samples as compared to those required by the classical near-field to far-field transformation and this was achieved without any loss in accuracy.