Over-The-Air Phased Array Antenna Calibration Performance Validation and Comparison: An Experimental Approach

Phased Array Antenna (PAA) requires each element’s precise amplitude and phase calibration to obtain the desired array pattern. A more practical approach, i.e., OTA calibration, has been recently employed, targeting future SATCOM/5G/mm-wave radio scenarios. Two well-known methods, mREV and orthogonal coding, are used for PAA calibration. This paper investigates the robustness of the performance of the above techniques in near/far field radiation mode. Experiments are validated on a 1 X 4 L-band uniform linear array. A comparison of the results regarding amplitude/phase tracking accuracy and element failure detection is shown. Calibration errors are explained, and system performance is analyzed.