THACO, a Test Facility for Characterizing the Noise Performance of Active Antenna Arrays

TL;DR

This paper presents THACO, an outdoor test facility designed to measure the noise performance of active antenna arrays, achieving noise temperature measurements around 50 K using a Y-factor method with hot and cold loads.

Contribution

Introduction of THACO, a novel outdoor test facility for accurate noise characterization of active antenna arrays in real-world conditions.

Findings

Array noise temperatures around 50 K measured

Effective shielding reduces environmental noise and RFI

Y-factor method successfully applied for noise measurement

Abstract

This paper discusses an outdoor test facility for the noise characterization of active antenna arrays, using measurement results of array noise temperatures in the order of 50 K for a number of small aperture arrays. The measurement results are obtained by a Y-factor method with hot and a cold noise sources, with an absorber at room temperature as the hot load and the cold sky as the cold load. The effect of shielding the arrays by the test facility, with respect to noise and RFI from the environment, will also be discussed.