Experimental verification of the far field criteria for AFWAL's compact range in the quiet zone region

In past years the radiation and scattering properties of aerospace components have been tested on large outdoor measurement ranges. The distance between the transmitting and receiving antenna (for radiation measurements) or target (for scattering measurements) is normally dictated by the far field criteria. Recent interest in the millimeter wavelength region and the need to measure larger targets requires longer distances between source and target to satisfy the far field condition. This report documents an alternative method of creating a space limited far field environment for radiation and scattering measurements using the compact range approach. However, some questions concerning the planarity of the aperture field have been raised by the scientific community. Field probe data is presented here which unquestionably verifies the planarity of the aperture field.