Antenna Alignment and Positional Validation of a mmWave Antenna System Using 6D Coordinate Metrology

Published

October 13, 2014

Author(s)

David R. Novotny, Jeffrey R. Guerrieri, Joshua A. Gordon

Abstract

We present the alignment techniques, positional accuracy and uncertainty results for a mmWave antenna scanning system at 183 GHz. We are using six degree-of-freedom (6DoF) AUT and Probe measurements (x, y, z, yaw, pitch, roll) to align the AUT and then to align the scan geometry to the AUT. We combine the position and orientation measurements using coordinated spatial metrology to assess the quality of each motion stage in the system, tie the measurements of each individual alignment together, and to assess scan geometry errors for position and pointing. Finally we take in-situ 6DoF position measurements to assess the positional accuracy throughout the measurement and to eventually allow for positional error correction in the final pattern analysis. Our final results show positioning errors on the spherical scan surface have an average error of ~25 µm with peak excursions of ~100 µm. This robust positioning allows for accurate analysis of the RF system stability. Our results show that at 183 GHz, our RF repeatability with movement over a 215⁰ orientation change with a 100 mm offset to be less than ±0.05 dB and ±6⁰.

Proceedings Title

2014 Proceedings of the Antenna Measurement Techniques Association

Conference Dates

October 13-17, 2014

Conference Location

Tuscon, AZ

Conference Title

Antenna Measurement Techniques Association

Pub Type

Conferences

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Citation

Novotny, D. , Guerrieri, J. and Gordon, J. (2014), Antenna Alignment and Positional Validation of a mmWave Antenna System Using 6D Coordinate Metrology, 2014 Proceedings of the Antenna Measurement Techniques Association, Tuscon, AZ, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=917086 (Accessed April 23, 2024)