US 11,721,894 B2
System and method for near-field testing of a phased array antenna
Carl J. Hahn, III, Inglewood, CA (US); Jeffrey T. McCollam, Huntington Beach, CA (US); and Paul Christian Werntz, Long Beach, CA (US)
Assigned to The Boeing Company, Chicago, IL (US)
Filed by THE BOEING COMPANY, Chicago, IL (US)
Filed on Apr. 3, 2020, as Appl. No. 16/839,977.
Prior Publication US 2023/0029048 A1, Jan. 26, 2023
Int. Cl. H01Q 3/26 (2006.01); H01Q 3/36 (2006.01); G01R 29/10 (2006.01)
CPC H01Q 3/267 (2013.01) [G01R 29/10 (2013.01); H01Q 3/36 (2013.01)] 19 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A near-field test system for a phased array antenna, the near-field test system comprising:
a single probe disposed at a single fixed position in a near-field of the phased array antenna and configured to transmit a single test beam toward a fixed location on the phased array antenna;
a beam forming network coupled to the phased array antenna and comprising:
a plurality of phase shifters configured to steer received beams for each antenna element of the phased array antenna to form a planar wave front when the received beams are combined; and
a beam summer coupled to the plurality of phase shifters and configured to combine power of the received beams;
a computing system coupled to the beam forming network and configured to:
scale combined power of the received beams; and
generate a virtual spectrum for the phased array antenna from scaled power of the received beams, wherein the received beams correspond entirely to the single test beam emitted from the single probe disposed at the single fixed position.