TABLE OF CONTENTS This first brief chapter will describe the phenomenological basis of antenna measurements and will attempt to set out the processes and techniques that will be developed in this text against the background of what can actually be observed about the action of antennas as circuit elements.
As is abundantly clear from the title, this volume has been penned for a very specific purpose; to explain clearly, concisely and in an understandable form the theory and practice of planar near-field antenna measurements. Again, as stated in the preface, to do this the volume will confine itself to considering the radiative coupling between electronic systems in free space for a number of very sound reasons.
First, in almost every practical engineering circumstance this is the mode in which antennas are utilized. If coupling between systems that are not physically separated by large distances is required various forms of transmission lines can be utilized, however, large separation distances almost invariably require the use of antennas. Communication systems contain transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx) subsystems, which use at least two antennas, and broadcast systems typically use considerably more than two antennas. Radars may, or may not, use the same antenna for their Tx and Rx subsystems and the coupling may well be profoundly affected by the scattering from some target, but in essence we are still considering coupling between electronic subsystems.
Careful consideration of all electronic systems that utilize antennas as components reveal that it is the extent...
