Reconfigurable Near-Field Beam Pattern Measurement System From 0.03 to 1.6 THz

With the discovery and utilization of great observation sites, on-ground radio astronomical observations have been extended from the millimeter-wave (mm-wave) range to around 1.6 THz. The radiation collected by the telescope reflector antenna is coupled to the receiver by means of the receiver optics. These optics must be designed to match the in-coming fields from the telescope and properly characterized by amplitude and phase measurements. This paper presents a reconfigurable near-field beam pattern measurement system which can characterize magnitude and phase patterns of antennas and optics from the mm-wave to the THz region. Measurements at 900 GHz and 1.37 THz are presented for two different configurations, using different phase-lock components, and measured under cryogenic and room-temperature conditions, respectively.