Antenna Radiation Pattern Measurements Using a Reverberation Chamber

This paper investigates the use of a reverberation chamber for antenna radiation pattern measurements allowing for significant cost reduction compared to anechoic environments. Our method utilizes averaging of paddle measurements to replicate anechoic data. We discuss both a correlation experiment, to determine how many degrees the reverberation paddle must rotate to create an uncorrelated measurement based on a 0.5 correlation threshold, and a radiation pattern measurement. Two matched horn antennas are used and operated between 1 GHz and 18 GHz. Good agreement is found between our measurements taken in a reverberation chamber and those taken by the manufacturer of the antenna in an anechoic chamber. We find that the main lobe radiation pattern of our antenna can be estimated with more certainty than the back-lobe radiation using a reverberation chamber. The goal is to use this simple and cost-effective method to determine radiation patterns for embedded antennas with unknown patterns, such as those within wireless devices.