Measurement of Radiation Efficiency of Multiport Antennas With Feeding Network Corrections

Journal article, 2012

Multiport antennas are widely used and often integrated with active components, such as low noise amplifiers, in antenna systems. It is important to verify and evaluate the radiation efficiency of a multiport antenna before being integrated in the system. When the radiation efficiency of a multiport antenna is measured, a multiport feeding network is always needed in order to provide the same antenna excitation as it is during its operation after being integrated in the system. This letter addresses how to measure the radiation efficiency of a multiport antenna excluding the losses in the feeding network used for the measurement, particularly when the impedance match between the antenna and the feeding network is not perfect. A rigorous feeding network correction approach is introduced by using measurement data of the radiation efficiency of the whole antenna with feeding network and the mbi S-matrices of both the feeding network and the antenna. As an example of this approach, the radiation efficiency of a multiport Eleven antenna has been determined and verified against the simulated results.