Critical Upgrade of Antenna Measurement System

无线天线必须适应便携式设备的拥挤环境，因此设计起来可能很困难。这一困难将在未来的无线系统中增加，因为所使用的天线将需要电子可重新配置，一个设备上将需要定位多个天线，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的过程中。然而，仅有理论工作是不够的。试验性实施是确认一切的关键。但随着天线性能复杂性的增加，所需的测量变得更加复杂。为了能够做到这一点，我们需要将我们现有的天线测试设备升级为所谓的球面近场系统。它将用于我们正在忙于研究的下一代无线天线的诊断和性能测试。幸运的是，我们将能够使用我们现有的所有设备。我们只需要获得一些额外的设备，就可以得到一个全功能的球面近场系统，它适用于各种应用中的天线，这将是未来的关键研究工具。

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.