Antenna Testing

The accurate measurements of antenna performance are mandate for a successful wireless product design. The wireless product development cycle involves antenna measurements at different stages of development. The size, weight, antenna parameters,interfaces and mounting of the antennas vary in a wide range based on the applications they cater to: from small near field communications to point to point back haul solutions, from commercial cellular and WLAN applications to highly customized defense and avionics applications, from internal antennas placed along with the radio chip set to external antennas conforming to applications and soon. 

TTSL offers reliable and accurate far field antenna measurements using the state of art Indoor and Outdoor open antenna range facilities available at the TIFAC Core in Wireless Technologies. TTSL is your one stop destination for complete antenna testing requirements. We offer complete end to end antenna testing services starting from passive radiation pattern related measurements to active measurements. The state of art facilities coupled with the highly skilled human resources will make your antenna testing experience with TTSL very unique and special.

In addition to antenna measurements we help you solve all antenna related issues like de tuning, gain drops, pattern spikes, polarization impurity etc that may arise during measurements by necessary tuning and trimming of your antennas as suggested by our antenna experts. We also undertake small design tuning of antenna using EM solvers assisted by our design team based on your requirements.

We are absolutely flexible in measurements where in you may book any of our measurement facilities on a full day or a half day basis. We also handle antennas directly shipped to us through post where in we do the measurements and deliver you back your antennas and our measurement reports.   

   Indoor Far Field Test Facility 

The indoor test range at TTSL is a far field measurement system installed in a completely shielded chamber of size 8 X 4 X 4 meters. Our test chamber is designed for the frequency range from 800 MHz to 18 GHz. The Chamber is fully lined on all surfaces (walls, floor and ceiling) with carbon embedded absorber materials from Emerson & Cuming to simulate a free space environment.

The chamber consists of a standard gain transmitting antenna and a Positioner on which the DUT is mounted. The Positioner is capable of 360 degrees rotation both in the Azimuth and Roll axis. The PNA N series network analyzer is used as the source and receiver for the anechoic chamber and MIDAS Software Suite, a fully automated data acquisition and analysis software is used for far field measurements. The anechoic chamber is validated by the CTIA (Cellular Telecommunication and Internet Association).

The Chamber coupled with the Positioner instrumentation is capable of 2D antenna measurements at any given axis of Phi and Theta.A complete three dimensional spherical measurement is also possible based on the great circle method.   

   Outdoor Far Field Test Facility 

Our outdoor far field test range at the TIFAC core is slant range tower with a far field measuring distance of 90 meters. The range consist of two towers one at a height of 30 meters holding the reference transmitting antenna and other at a height of 12 meters holding the Positioner and the DUT. The measurement set up gives an unique measurement experience by exploiting the advantages of both slant and straight antenna ranges: The range is neither a complete slant range and hence has minimized ground effects nor a complete straight range and hence has minimal wind and jitter effects. Our outdoor far field is thus more accurate and precise and can handle payloads up to few tens of kilograms.

The Positioner of the far field antenna test range is capable of 360 degrees rotation both in the Azimuth and Roll axis and is also based on the great circle method for 2D and 3D measurements. The PNA N series network analyzer is used as the source and receiver for the anechoic chamber and MIDAS Software Suite, a fully automated data acquisition and analysis software is used for far field measurements.

   Salient Features of Our Antenna Measurements 
  • Antenna measurements in both active and passive mode
  • Accurate and reliable measurements using the Anechoic chamber validated by CTIA
  • Capability to handle electrically small board antennas to larger high gain antennas
  • Accurate single frequency and extremely fast multi frequency sweep measurements
  • Fast turn around time for measurements and reporting
  • Antenna tuning and trimming for performance improvements during the course of measurements   
   Measured Antenna parameters 

TTSL offers the following measurement parameters to your test antenna using either the indoor or outdoor antenna measurement facilities

Passive measurements

  • Radiation pattern of antenna in polar and rectangular modes
  • Beam width, back and side lobe measurements
  • VSWR measurements
  • Gain and Directivity measurements
  • Polarization and Axial ratio measurements
  • Complete 3 dimensional pattern measurements for different polarizations

Active Measurements for GSM and CDMA standards

  • Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP) Measurements
  • Total Radiated Power (TRP) Measurements
  • Effective Isotropic Sensitivity (EIS) Measurements
  • Total Isotropic Sensitivity (TIS) Measurements