A Single-Antenna Method and Post-Processing Strategy for Radar Cross-Section Measurements at Near-Field Ranges

The single-antenna technique proposed in this paper was developed for measuring the radar cross-section at near-field distances in a real environment, from reflection coefficient measurements on the antenna. The near-field radar cross-section is corrected with an analytical factor calculated as a ratio between the radar cross-section computed at far-field and near-field. The analytical correction factor takes into account the effects of the diffraction at the edges of the target at incidence angles higher than 20 degrees. An improved, distance averaging technique is proposed to reduce the multipath propagation effects. A time-gating procedure is additionally used in order to better isolate the reflection from the target and to remove the real environment contributions. The method was successfully tested on a rectangular metallic plate as a target over a wide frequency band, at normal and oblique incidence angles; however, it might also work for arbitrarily shaped targets, because they can actually be divided into small rectangular patches.