Senior Design Project - Antenna Test Range
Colorado State University
Antenna Laboratory
Senior Design Project with Professor Branislav Notaros working on the Antenna Test Range project. The goal of this project is to develop a test chamber for the characterization and analysis of microwave antennas and devices. The system consists of two positioning systems, one with planar (cartesian) movements, and the other with spherical movements, upon which the devices under test are mounted. Measurements are performed using an Agilent network analyzer.This was a continuation project in which the anechoic chamber was built and the positioning systems were fabricated, however upon taking over the project the system was nonoperational. Therefore all of the pieces were in place, and it was my goal to get the system in a fully functional state. Over the course of the project I have accomplished the following:• Developed Firmware to control motor movements. Written in C++ and implemented using a microcontroller • Developed Graphical User Interface software to control all of the various parts of the system.o Written in C# using Microsoft Visual Studioo Processes measurement data and plots the incoming data in real-timeo Supports automated measurement sweeps for both Near-Field and Far-Field measurements. o Full antenna characterization analysis integrated into software including gain vs. frequency, VSWR, HPBW, return loss, 3-D and 2-D radiation pattern plottingo Utilizes multiple threads with both synchronous and asynchronous thread marshalling techniques in order to ensure proper control between the measurement and positioning systems while keeping the main application free and allow real-time plottingAt this time, we now have a fully operational antenna test chamber at Colorado State University that is accurate, reliable, and robust.In addition we have won several awards over the course of this year including:• Agilent sponsored senior design competition• 2nd place in Engineering-Days senior design competition
