What services does the Antenna Test Facilities offer?

The specifications of the laboratories are as follows:

The CATR is a dual-parabolic cylinder reflector compact range dedicated to testing small to medium sized antennas. Its positioning system comprises a polar over-elevation over azimuth rotation axes, with optical encoders on all axes to provide accurate position knowledge.

It is ideally suited for testing antennas under development for verification of their design, as well as qualification testing of antennas. It can assess measurement techniques and develop them for R&D projects and provide measurement services. 

HERTZ consists of a shielded anechoic chamber within a Class 100,000 clean room (ISO 8) with a unique hybrid capability the existing Compact Payload Test Range (CPTR), and a Planar/Spherical/Cylindrical Near Field Scanner.

The CPTR is a Compensated Compact Range designed for low cross-polar performance. This allows the making of accurate measurements of communication payloads employing frequency and/or polarisation reuse. The feed horns can be placed at different locations in the focal zone, causing the wave front to deviate from the normal range axis. By placing horns at a variety of positions, the performance of a complete up/downlink via a satellite for ground stations in different locations can be measured.

The Near Field Range consists of an inverted-T planar scanner in combination with the heavy duty positioning system for the Device Under Test (DUT). For planar scanning, the DUT does not move and can be even positioned on its own support (e.g. multi-purpose trolley) if required. For spherical and cylindrical near-field scanning, the theta-phi rotation is performed in a roll-over-azimuth configuration

The equipment needed to operate the positioners and acquire the test data is located in the adjacent control room. The Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EGSE) required to operate the system under test is placed in the preparation area and connected with feed-throughs to the system in the HERTZ facility

Microwave Material RF Characterization Facility

The Microwave Material RF characterization free space test facility comprises two corrugated feeds and grids with collimating elliptical mirrors focused at the sample position. The set-up is used in conjunction with the Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR) positioner. It allows polarization measurements in transmission and reflection configuration (both monostatic and bistatic).

This facility enables the characterization of materials for antenna radomes, reflectors, Electromagnetic Band Gap structures as well as Frequency /Polarisation Selective Surfaces (FSS).

The pair of horns for each frequency band is either directly connected to the Network Analyser (8-50 GHz) or to Solid State Frequency Extenders based on multipliers and mixers (50-110 GHz). 

(Sub)mm-wave Material RF Characterization Facility

The (Sub)mm-wave test facility is a Quasi-Optical free-space RF measurement bench that, when combined with a Network Analyser and analysis software, provides a powerful measurement tool for the determination of complex material properties. It allows the characterization of dielectrics, ferrites, reflective surfaces and a variety of printed structures, such as FSS, CPSS and half-wave plates. The set-up is installed in a controlled clean room environment ensuring adequate conditions for flight hardware testing.