About Us

We provide affordable high performance planar near-field test systems for medium to high gain antenna and phased array test. The system provide fast and high accuray measurements, with high precision movement and high planarity, and with carefully designed RF signal chain. Our professional team serves customers with their expertise in planar near-field test systems, active phased arrays measurement and antenna measurements.

Contact Information Warranty
Email: msarrtechnology@gmail.com We provide a two-year warranty against defects in materials, manufacturing, product installation and software bugs. The warranty commences after the final site acceptance test has been completed.

Planar Near-Field Test System

3D Model of Planar Near-Field Scanner with X, Y, Z, and Polarization axes labeled
Figure 1: Planar Near-Field Scanner 3D Mechanical Overview

1. Description

Planar Near-Field scanner systems are accurate, fast, and ranging in frequencies from micro-wave to mm-wave bands.

Planar Near-Field scanner is always the best solution for planar active phase array calibration and antenna aperture diagnosis.

The near-field test of the antenna plane uses a probe with a known characteristic, and enters the scan on a plane at several wavelengths (3-10λ) from the antenna to be measured, measures the amplitude and phase distribution of the antenna at the discrete point of the plane, and determines the far-field direction of the antenna through the expansion of the plane wave to obtain the far-field radiation characteristics of the antenna.

Systems can be configured as vertical or horizontal scan planes as well as customized per specified requirements.

For high directivity antenna test, microwave absorber wall is only needed at the main radiation direction. Microwave darkroom shielding and absorption systems is optional depending on requirement.

Planar Near-Field scanner system mainly includes mechanical subsystems, RF subsystems, control and test software, data processing software.

The mechanical subsystem mainly includes the scanning rack, the scanner controller, the probe polarization rotation device. The RF subsystem has waveguide probes, and cables, power amplifier, low noise amplifier, and mixers according to requirement.

2. Applications

Measurements of high-gain antennas (gain ≥15 dBi) such as:

3. System Functions

4. Test Accuracy

Parameter Accuracy / Error Range
Gain Measurement Error ≤ ± 0.3 dB (error in standard horn gain not included)
-20dB Side Lobe Level Error ≤ ± 0.8 dB
-30dB Side Lobe Level Error ≤ ± 2.0 dB
-40dB Side Lobe Level Error ≤ ± 3.0 dB
Amplitude Accuracy (RMS) 0.1 dB
Phase Accuracy (RMS) 1°

5. Scanner Size

The following figure shows some standard size of scanner. The planar scanner is generally a customized product, the size and configuration is according to customer's requirement.

Comparison of various scanner sizes from 1.8m to 30m height
Standard and Customized Scanner Size Variations

Planar Near-Field Test System (Example Project)

1. Overview

This example project involves the construction of a microwave anechoic chamber and planar near-field test system. The project includes a shielding room with dimensions 15.7m (L) × 12.2m (W) × 16m (H), consisting of high-power and clean-type absorbing materials. The system includes an 11m (X-axis) × 12m (Y-axis) × 0.5m (Z-axis) planer scanner, control system, software system, and test probes, capable of testing radar phased array antennas in the 2GHz to 12GHz frequency band (this is a scanner in use, it could be extend to 40GHz).

Actual photograph of the anechoic chamber with blue absorbers and the scanner installed
Anechoic Chamber Installation with Planar Scanner

2. System Configuration List

No. Product Name Item/Model Description Qty
1 Planar Near-Field Scanner XY Axis Steel inverted-T structure, X-axis (200mm/s), Y-axis (300mm/s), Travel 11m × 12m 1 Set
Z Axis Travel 0.5m, used for distance adjustment and flatness compensation 1 Set
Polarization Axis Travel 0-360°, Positioning accuracy: ≤0.1° 1 Set
RF Rotary Joint DC-18GHz, used for polarization axis, life 5 million rotations 1 Set
2 Control System System Controller Multi-axis control, communication/sync, includes manual handwheel 1 Set
3 Control Cabinet Black Cabinet Standard control cabinet 1 Set
4 Frame Shielding Absorbing Materials Covers metal parts of the scanning frame 1 Set
5 LNA Gain 40dB 1 Set
6 RF Cables RF Cable Low-loss, phase-stable cables DC~18GHz 1 Set
7 RF Accessories Adapters N-SMA, SMA double female, SMA right angle 1 Set
8 Probes Waveguide Probe 1.7-12.4GHz open-ended waveguide probe kit 1 Set
9 Software Test Software Data acquisition, processing (2D/3D), script functions, output 1 Set
10 Computer Computer System 1T HDD, 32G RAM, 27-inch monitor, Win 64-bit 1 Unit
11 Shielding System Shielding Shell ≥15.7 × 12.2 × 16m, welded structure, 3mm/2mm cold-rolled steel 1 Unit
12 Absorbing Material Various types 1193 sq m
13 Accessories Chamber Acc. Ventilation, Monitoring (PTZ), Lighting (150W), Wiring, Alarms, Intercom, Filters, Grounding (<1 ohm) 1 set
14 Doors Main Door 5m × 11m sliding door with lifting platform 1 unit
Service Door ≥1.0 × 2.0m (W × H) 1 unit
15 Control Room Enclosure 4.9 × 4.3 × 3m, anti-static floor, fire extinguisher, desk/chairs 1 set
16 Equipment Room Enclosure 10.8 × 1.9 × 3m, shelves, non-shielded double doors 1 set

3. System Functions

4. Specifications

4.1 Chamber Specifications

4.2 Scanner Specifications

4.3 System Performance