Design And Implementation Of System Control Software For Antenna Near-field Measurement System

Antenna near-field measurement systems play irreplaceable roles in manned space flights, Lunar Exploration Projects, Second generation navigation and other key projects. Generally, the antenna near-field measurement instrument is composed of general purpose instruments and special control devices. Nowadays, high performance systems used in our country are mainly from foreign countries, which is very expensive. A great deal of experiment costs and foreign currency can be saved and huge economic benefits can be attained if we can develop the antenna near-field test system with high performance. In addition, test systems based on independent innovation can be realized.The system control software of the antenna near-field measurement system is the core technology in instrument development as the final embodiment of all the functions of the whole system. It can implement the top-level control and schedule all tasks. Moreover, the system control software allows the user to make test strategies through powerful flexible human-computer interaction interfaces, and can achieved intelligent allocation and precise scheduling for all test tasks. In addition, the software can control hardware modules and the measured antenna, and make them work synchronously. Finally, sampling and recording of high speed for the near field test data computation, analyzing with high accuracy and comprehensive verification for antenna performance can be realized. Therefore, developing the system control software for the advanced and powerful antenna near-field test system software is very important.The entire near-field antenna measurement system consists of a high-precision three-dimensional sampling module, an ultra-wide-band microwave module, the near-field antenna measurement system controlling software and the data analysis software. The near-field antenna measurement system controlling software is designed according to requirements of a major national instrument project taken on by a research institute. The system control software includes three operating modes. In the first mode, the high-precision and three-dimensional sampling module works individually, and ultra-wide-band microwave modules work individually for the second mode. Besides, the high-precision three-dimensional sampling module and ultra-wide-band microwave modules operate synchronously according to some special rules. The software adopts the object-oriented C #(C-Sharp) language to design various functional modules, and utilizes intelligent fault-tolerant technology, self-locking for operation and multi-threading technology in the overall process.Currently, the Version 1.0 of the software development has been completed, and the system test has succeeded in the antenna near field test prototype. In addition, the software has passed through the assessment of the near-field antenna test project.