The New Large Antenna Positioning System for Over-The-Air Testing at the National Institute of Standards and Technology

Published

April 8, 2018

Author(s)

Jeffrey R. Guerrieri, David R. Novotny, Josh Gordon, Alexandra Curtin, Michael S. Allman, Kim Hassett, Quang Ton

Abstract

This paper introduces the new Large Antenna Positioning System (LAPS) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). For the last eight years NIST has been pioneering the use of robotics for antenna measurements. Starting with the development and integration of the Configurable Robotic Millimeter-Wave Antenna (CROMMA) facility. CROMMA was designed to be reconfigurable to different near-field antenna measurement geometries and perform antenna measurements from 100 to 500 GHz. Probe position repeatability of 25 µm was achieved using coordinate metrology feedback. However, the single robotic armed CROMMA was restricted to small antennas. To overcome this limitation, NIST developed the concept of a dual robot system with one fixed and the other mounted on a large linear rail slide. Using characterization of the robotic arm joints and segments, LAPS will have open loop probe position accuracies of 200 µm to facilitate antenna measurements up to 30 GHz.

Conference Dates

April 9-13, 2018

Conference Location

London, UK

Conference Title

12th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

Local Download

Keywords

large antenna positioning system, robotic arm, kinematics, 5G communications

Citation

Guerrieri, J. , Novotny, D. , Gordon, J. , Curtin, A. , Allman, M. , Hassett, K. and Ton, Q. (2018), The New Large Antenna Positioning System for Over-The-Air Testing at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, 12th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, London, UK, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=925061 (Accessed October 10, 2025)