Assessment of a TD-based method for characterization of antennas

Antenna-characterization measurements are traditionally performed in the frequency domain (FD) through a vector network analyzer (VNA) in an anechoic chamber. Nevertheless, the high cost of the required setup strongly limits the possibility of using this approach. Starting from these considerations, a time-domain (TD)-based approach for characterizing antennas without using an anechoic chamber is assessed. As a matter of fact, instruments operating in TD are usually less expensive than VNAs; nevertheless, with appropriate data processing, they provide as much information. Particularly, it is demonstrated that the selection of an optimal time windowing is the main factor that guarantees a high accuracy level in the corresponding FD. The proposed approach leads to the accurate evaluation of the reflection scattering parameter S11(f) from time-domain reflectometry (TDR) data. The experimental validation is tested on a commercial radio-frequency identification (RFID) reader antenna, and the results are compared with reference VNA measurements performed in an anechoic chamber. The ultimate goal of this paper is to demonstrate that, through calibrated TDR measurements, along with an optimal time windowing, an accurate antenna characterization can be achieved