Validation of a Fully Anechoic Chamber

This paper describes a technique to characterize the performance of a Fully Anechoic Chamber (FAC) from 500 MHz to 3 GHz based on S-Parameter analysis with antennas and a Vector Network Analyzer (VNA. The measurements have been performed by placing one antenna inside the chamber and performing S11 reflection analyses in the frequency domain. Via Inverse Fast Fourier Transformation (IFFT) the reflections in the time domain have been analyzed. Also, experiments where S21 transmission loss is measured by putting 2 antennas at different locations have been performed. One antenna is omnidirectional while the other is directional and measurements have been performed in the frequency domain using the VNA. The results are transformed to time domain using the IFFT and time gating is applied to identify the direct and reflected signals, resulting in the so-called site-Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (sVSWR). This sVSWR method enables the analysis of the reflected wave, or imperfection of the chamber. The measurement results show that the chamber has good performance.