# Microwave Sensing, Signals and Systems

**Source**: https://radar.tudelft.nl/Facilities/ducat.php
**Parent**: https://radar.tudelft.nl/Facilities/

**[Microwave Sensing, Signals and Systems](https://radar.tudelft.nl/)** 

[Department of Microelectronics](http://microelectronics.tudelft.nl)

# DUCAT

The Delft University Chamber for Antenna Tests
(**DUCAT**) is a moderate size anechoic chamber which
allows for far-field and near-field measurements thanks to a foldable
inverted T scanner. It has recently been refurbished with new absorbers
and stepping motors.

Inside of the DUCAT (near-field configuration)

Far-field mesurements configuration of the DUCAT

## Chamber description

The chamber is a 6m x 3m x 3m Faraday cage providing
120 dB isolation ( at 10 GHz ) to reject external interferences. The
walls, ceiling and floor are covered with RF absorbers with reflectivity
performance below -40 dB from 1.2 GHz to 40 GHz. The maximum distance
between the transmitting antenna and the antenna under test is 4 meters,
meaning that a 10 cm aperture antenna is still in the far-field zone at
60 GHz.

## Mechanical subsystem

The mechanical subsystem consists of 9 stepping motors.

The antenna under test (AUT) positioner is a roll over
azimuth type, mounted on a dual axis translation stage to allow for
accurate alignment of the AUT's phase centre with the rotation axis.
The azimuthal resolution is better than 0.001 degrees.

The transmit antenna can be aligned in azimuth and
elevation.

The foldable inverted T planar scanner has a 2m x 2m
aperture. The resolution is better than 10um.

## Configurations

Far-field

Planar near-field

Cylindrical near-field

Plane-polar near-field

## RF subsystem

A 4-port vector network analyser is used as RF source
and receiver for the antenna measurement set-up. The N5227A covers the
frequency range from 10 MHz to 67 GHz with a dynamic range better than
120 dB thanks to the direct receiver access option which bypasses the
internal directional coupler.

In addition a 24-port test-set can be used up to 20 GHz.

Dedicated phase-stable flexible RF cables are used with
manufacturer specifications up to 50 GHz.

An object in scanner of the DUCAT

## Near-field probes and standard gain horns

Our research group owns an array of near-field probes
covering the frequencies from 1 GHz to 26 GHz. For far-field measurements
standard gain horns are used which cover all bands from L to W (1 GHz to
110 GHz).

## Additional Measurement Equipment

Following list of equipment is available for the MS3 group and
can be used for measurements within DUCAT.

| ***Equipment***  ***Frequency band*** | |
| --- | --- |
| **Network Analysers:** | |
| Agilent HP 8753D | 30 KHz - 6 GHz |
| Agilent E 8364B | 10 MHz - 50 GHz |
| Agilent N5242A (4 ports) | 10 MHz - 26.5 GHz |
| Agilent N5227A (4 ports) | 10 MHz - 67 GHz |
| **Millimeter wave extension modules:** | |
| Agilent N5260-60003 | 67 GHz - 110 GHz |
| **Multiport test set** | |
| Agilent 87050A - K24 (24 ports) | 10 MHz - 20 GHz |
| **Spectrum Analysers** | |
| Agilent 8592A | 50 KHz - 22 GHz |
| Agilent 8565E | 9 KHz - 50 GHz |
| **Arbitrary Waveform generator** | |
| Tektronix AWG 5014B | 1.2 GS/s |
| **Oscilloscopes** | |
| Tektronix 784A | 1 GHz, 4 GS/s |
| Agilent DSO-X-91604A | 16 GHz, 40/80GS/s |
| Geozondas SD3003NF + SU4126NF | 100 MHz - 26 GHz (stroboscopic 10 MHz) |
| **Power meters** | |
| Anritsu ML2437A | up to 50 GHz |
| Agilent E4418A | up to 110 GHz |

 

## Contact persons

[### prof.dr. Alexander Yarovoy

Scientific coordination](https://radar.tudelft.nl/People/bio.php?id=11)
[### ing. Fred van der Zwan

Organization and technical coordination](https://radar.tudelft.nl/People/bio.php?id=108)
[### ir. Pascal Aubry

Technical and research questions](https://radar.tudelft.nl/People/bio.php?id=109)

---

\* \* \*

---

[### Back

Back to the MS3 group facilities](https://radar.tudelft.nl/Facilities/index.php)

[Fred arms an 'object'](https://radar.tudelft.nl/Facilities/imgs/ducat03.jpg)

## Research Support

[TU Delft Research Support portal](http://researchsupport.tudelft.nl/)

[DeMSIS](http://regenradar.tudelft.nl/)

### Agenda

- ### No activities