Input-Blind Antenna Range Reflection Mitigation Via Channel Estimation

Antenna range surface reflections are commonly mitigated in continuous-wave measurements using frequency sweeps and time-domain gating; however, these techniques are not well suited for characterizing non-continuous-wave or operational waveforms radiated by integrated systems and subsystems. Channel-estimation-based reflection mitigation methods have been shown to address this limitation, but existing approaches require direct access to the transmit waveform, which is often unavailable in practice. This paper presents two input-blind antenna range reflection mitigation methods that operate using only signals collected at the range antenna, removing the need for access to the system under test’s internally generated transmit signal. Both methods leverage a characterization waveform to estimate the reflection response and subsequently predict and mitigate undesired multipath contributions in measured test signals. The proposed techniques are validated experimentally on an outdoor antenna range using a variety of waveform types, bandwidths, and pulsewidths, including measurements conducted in both controlled and complex reflection environments. Results demonstrate reflection mitigation performance comparable to prior channel-estimation-based approaches while significantly expanding applicability to integrated systems and measurement scenarios for which transmit signal access is infeasible.