volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to highlight and elaborate the construction and establishment of a rectangular anechoic chamber (AC) of dimensions 7 m × 4 m × 3 m working from 0.1 GHz to 40 GHz. It is an informative checklist giving an insight on the reckoning of chamber dimensions and selection of appropriate absorbers as per the required specifications. It briefs the key features of validation of an anechoic chamber, namely, shielding effectiveness and reflectivity (quiet zone). It describes the intricacies of the integration of systems such as vector network analyzer (VNA), antenna mounting stands, three-axes motorized antenna rotation control circuitry and customized software. The validation of the established chamber is accomplished for overall shielding effectiveness of -80 dB and reflectivity of -40 dB in one cubic meter area at the receiving antenna or antenna under test (AUT) region far away from transmitter say, at 5.5 m separation. This paper covers the measurement results of three broadband horn antennas which can be used as reference antennas for characterization of other antennas in the chosen frequency range. The entire report will certainly be a guideline for any reader or aspirant who is interested in the development of a similar anechoic chamber and looking for complete intricacies.

1. Hemming, L. H., Electromagnetic Anechoic Chambers: A Fundamental Design and Specification Guide, Chapters 1–18, Wiley-IEEE Press, 2002.
doi:10.1109/9780470544501

2. Emerson, W. H., Anechoic chamber, U.S. Patent No. 3,308,463, March 1967.

3. Hemming, L. H., Anechoic chamber, U.S. Patent No. 4,507,660, March 1986.

4. Sanchez, G. A., Geometrically optimized anechoic chamber, U.S. Patent No. 5,631,661, May 1997.

5. Farahbakhsh, A. and M. Khalaj-Amirhosseini, "Metallic spherical anechoic chamber for antenna pattern measurement," Chin. Phys. B, Vol. 25, No. 8, 088401, 2016.
doi:10.1088/1674-1056/25/8/088401 Google Scholar

6. Farahbakhsh, A. and M. Khalaj-Amirhosseini, "Using metallic ellipsoid anechoic chamber to reduce the absorber usage," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 63, No. 9, 4229-4232, September 2015.
doi:10.1109/TAP.2015.2448791 Google Scholar

7. Farahbakhsh, A. and D. Zarifi, "Design of metallic parabolic anechoic chamber for compact range measurement," Electronics Letters, Vol. 53, No. 5, 294-296, March 2, 2017.
doi:10.1049/el.2016.3411 Google Scholar

8. Appel-Hansen, J., "Reflectivity level of radio anechoic chambers," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 21, No. 4, 490-498, July 1973.
doi:10.1109/TAP.1973.1140524 Google Scholar

9. USAF Handbook for the Design and Construction of HEM P/TEM PEST Shielded Facilities, AF Regional Civil Engineer Central Region, Dallas, TX, 1987.

10. Hemming, L. H., Architectural Electromagnetic Shielding Handbook, IEEE Press, 1992.

11. Morrison, R., Grounding and Shielding Techniques, John Wiley & Sons, 1998.

12. Genecco, L. T., The Design and Shielded Enclosures: Cost Effective Methods to Prevent EMI, Butterworth-Heinemann, 2000.

13. O’Riley, R. P., Electrical Grounding: Bringing Grounding back to Earth, 6th Ed., Delmar Publishing, 2001.

14. IEEE Std. 1100-1999 IEEE Recommended Practice for Powering and Grounding Electronic Equipment, IEEE Press, 1999.

15. Sanchez, G. and P. Connor, "How much is a dB worth?," 23rd Annual Symposium of the Antenna Measurement Techniques Association (AMTA), Denver, Colo., October 2001. Google Scholar

16. Hansen, J. and V. Rodriguez, "Evaluate antenna measurement methods," Microwave and RF, October 2010. Google Scholar

17. Rodriguez, V., "Basic rules for anechoic chamber design, Part one: RF absorber approximations," Microwave Journal, Vol. 59, No. 1, 72-86, January 2016. Google Scholar

18. "IEEE Standard Test Procedures for Antennas, ANSI/IEEE Std 149-1979,", 1979. Google Scholar

19. Bennett, J. C. and B. Chambers, "Identification of unwanted scatterers on a free-field EMI test range," IEEE Proceedings F — Communications, Radar and Signal Processing, Vol. 130, No. 6, 548-556, October 1983.
doi:10.1049/ip-f-1.1983.0086 Google Scholar

20. Thorpe, J. R. and J. C. Bennett, "Characterising the quiet zone of an anechoic chamber," 2004 IEE Antenna Measurements and SAR, AMS 2004, 2004. Google Scholar

21. IEEE standard method for measuring the shielding effectiveness of enclosures and boxes having all dimensions between 0.1 m and 2 m, IEEE Std 299.1-2013, 1–96, January 15, 2014.

22. Sheret, T. and B. Allen, "Axis transform to characterise a monopulse twist reflector antenna and radome in an anechoic chamber," 2014 Loughborough Antennas and Propagation Conference (LAPC), 612-616, Loughborough, 2014. Google Scholar

23. Rodriguez, V. and E. Barry, "A polynomial approximation for the prediction reflected energy from pyramidal RF absorbers," Proc. 38th Annu. Symp. Antennas Measurement Techniques Association, 155-160, October 2016. Google Scholar

24. Xu, Q., Y. Huang, X. Zhu, L. Xing, P. Duxbury, and J. Noonan, "Building a better anechoic chamber: A geometric optics-based systematic solution, simulated and verified [measurements corner]," IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 58, No. 2, 94-119, April 2016.
doi:10.1109/MAP.2016.2520254 Google Scholar

25. Chen, Z., Z. Xiong, and A. Enayati, "Limitations of the free space VSWR measurements for chamber validation," Proc. 38th Annu. Symp. Antenna Measurement Techniques Association, 144-148, October 2016. Google Scholar

26. Rodriguez, V., "Comparing predicted performance of anechoic chambers to free space VSWR measurements," 2017 Antennas Measurement Techniques Association Symposium (AMTA), 1-6, Atlanta, GA, 2017. Google Scholar

27. Xiong, Z., Z. Chen, and J. Chen, "Efficient broadband electromagnetic modeling of anechoic chambers," 2017 11th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP), 3747-3750, Paris, 2017.
doi:10.23919/EuCAP.2017.7928118 Google Scholar

28. Liao, S., Microwave Devices and Circuits, 3rd Ed., Prentice Hall, 1990.

29. Raju, G. S. N., Antennas and Wave Propagation, 3rd Ed., Pearson Education, 2009.

30. Rodriguez, V., "Validation of a method for predicting anechoic chamber performance: A technique that uses polynomial approximations for rf absorber reflectivity," IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 60, No. 4, 31-40, August 2018.
doi:10.1109/MAP.2018.2839895 Google Scholar

31. Hunter, E. R. and T. Stander, "A compact, low-cost millimetre-wave anechoic chamber," 2016 10th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), 1-5, Davos, 2016. Google Scholar

32. Chung, B. K., "Anechoic chamber design," Handbook of Antenna Technologies, Z. N. Chen, D. Liu, H. Nakano, X. Qing, and Th. Zwick (eds.), Springer, Singapore, 2016. Google Scholar

33. Foged, L. J., M. H. Francis, and V. Rodriguez, "Update of IEEE Std 1720–2012 recommended practice for near-field antenna measurements," 2019 Antenna Measurement Techniques Association Symposium (AMTA), 1-3, 2019. Google Scholar

34. Rodriguez, V., Anechoic Range Design for Electromagnetic Measurements, Artech House, 2019.

35. Mandaris, D., N. Moonen, S. van de Beek, F. Buesink, and F. Leferink, "Validation of a fully anechoic chamber," 2016 Asia-Pacific International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility (APEMC), 865-868, 2016.
doi:10.1109/APEMC.2016.7522892 Google Scholar

36. Tian, B. B. Free space VSWR method for anechoic chamber electromagnetic performance evaluation, MI Technologies, Technical Papers, 2008.

37. Hao, X., R. Liu, Y. Chen, and J. He, "Calculation and optimization of quiet-zone in RF anechoic chamber," 7th International Symposium on Antennas, Propagation & EM Theory, IEEE, 2006. Google Scholar

38. IEEE Standards Association Policies and Procedures: https://standards.ieee.org/standard/299- 1969.html.

39. Military Standard 285: Attenuation Measurements for Enclosures and Electromagnetic Shielding: https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/771997.pdf.

Professor Sellakkutti Suganthi

Dr. Deepal Deepak Patil

Dr. Elisha Chand