Medidas singulares de antenas en equipos y sistemas aeroespaciales

Abstract

The requirements in the antenna measurement demanded by the industry, especially in sectors such as aerospace and defense and security, have increased. This forces the laboratories that carry out these tests to evolve appropriately. In this way, INTA’s Laboratory for Antennas and Radar Signature Measurement has implemented new test and measurement capabilities in its catalog. The laboratory has three different facilities, each one dedicated to a specific type of test. The semi-open chamber has the ability to measure and calibrate the antenna factor in collaboration with the INTA Center for Metrology and Calibration, while the open field has the ability to measure antennas by ground reflection for VHF and UHF frequency bands. The INTA Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR) is a complete turn-key test system for antenna and Radar Cross Section (RCS) measurements. In this article, a review of the laboratory’s capabilities in relation to antenna measurement will be shown. In addition, some of the newest features will be explained, such as the ability to measure antennas up to 8 meters using spherical near field measurement technique and the development of a ground plane for measuring the RCS of antennas on low observability platforms.