Critical Upgrade of Antenna Measurement System

无线天线必须适合便携式设备的拥挤环境，因此很难设计。在未来的无线系统中，这种困难将会增加，因为所使用的天线将需要电子可重构，一个以上的天线将需要位于一个设备上，并且它们必须提供比传统天线更多的性能特性。需要新的天线配置、设计方法和测试方法。这些我们已经在开发过程中。然而，仅仅进行理论工作是不够的。实验性实施对于确认一切至关重要。但是随着天线性能复杂性的增加，所需的测量变得更加精细。为了能够做到这一点，我们需要将现有的天线测试设施升级为所谓的球形近场系统。它将被用于诊断和性能测试的下一代无线天线，我们正在忙碌研究。幸运的是，我们将能够使用所有现有的设备。我们只需要获得一些额外的设备，以达到一个功能齐全的球形近场系统，适用于各种应用中使用的天线，这将是一个关键的研究工具，在未来。

Wireless antennas must fit in the crammed environment of portable devices, and so can be difficult to design. This difficulty will increase in future wireless systems because the antennas used will need to be electronically reconfigurable, more than one antenna will need to be located on a device, and they will have to offer more than the traditional antenna performance characteristics. New antenna configurations, design methods, and testing methods are needed. These we are already in the process of developing. However, theoretical work alone is not sufficient. Experimental implementation is vital to confirm everything. But as antenna performance complexity increases the measurements needed become more elaborate. In order to be able to do these we need to upgrade our existing antenna test facility to a so-called spherical near-field system. It will be used for diagnostic and performance testing of the next-generation wireless antennas we are busy researching. Fortunately we will be able to use all of our existing equipment. We need obtain only some additional pieces of equipment to arrive at a fully-functional spherical near-field system that applies to antennas used in a wide variety of applications, and which will be a key research tool in the future.