Phaseless Characterization of Compact Antenna Test Range via Improved Alternating Projection Algorithm

A practical compact antenna test range (CATR) requires good quiet zone quality for antenna characterization. This paper addresses the phase profile of the CATR quiet zone from the known intensity pattern of spatial domain and Fourier domain based on a combined alternating projection algorithm. The proposed algorithm is composed of Gerchberg–Saxton (GS) and Hybrid Input–Output (HIO) algorithms and the two algorithms with spatial phase perturbation (SPP) work collaboratively or independently under predesigned conditions. It is observed that the algorithm with random initial phase guess can always converge to an optimal solution by performing a series of hierarchical optimizations of the problem. The numerical results are in good agreement with simulated results in different frequency bands, overcoming the phase retrieval limitation of local convergence in the iterative process. Furthermore, to validate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed procedure, the related discussions corresponding to different sampling areas in Fourier domain and different signal to noise ratios (SNRs) are given.