Application of Statistical Methods to Assess the Metrological Characteristics of Radio-Holographic Measuring Complexes

Abstract

Practical application of the radio-holographic method for measuring the characteristics of antennas, especially when conducting acceptance testing of systems, requires an adequate assessment of the errors in the recovery of long-range characteristics. These errors appear to be a superposition composed of various sources, having different nature, different time characteristics and different degrees of influence on the final result. The purpose of this work was the development of a practical technique for determining the influence of random errors in measuring the amplitude-phase distribution of the field of the antenna required for the accuracy of restoring long-range characteristics (primarily the antenna pattern) of the antenna, the proposed technique being based only on processing the experimental results obtained with this measuring complex.A practical method for determining the influence of random errors in measuring the amplitude-phase distribution of the field of the antenna under study on the accuracy of restoring its long-range characteristics (primarily the directional pattern) on the basis of correlation and spectral analysis has been developed and experimentally confirmed. The main advantage of the developed method in comparison with the use of mathematical modeling is that the estimation of the accuracy of the reconstruction of the directivity diagrams is based on the results of processing experimental data obtained on a specific measuring complex and does not a priori impose any preliminary requirements on the statistical parameters of errors. The developed procedure for estimating the influence of random errors can be used to develop a methodology for metrological certification of measuring systems as measuring instruments.