NSI Test Chambers/Control Room

CHAMBERS DESCRIPTION

Located in Torrance, CA, NSI has constructed two test chambers that greatly enhance its in-house testing capabilities. Chamber 1 is a multi-purpose chamber that provides Planar Near-field (PNF) measurements and can easily be upgraded for Cylindrical Near-field (CNF) and/or Spherical Near-field (SNF) measurements. Chamber 2 is a SNF chamber that has been characterized down to 400 MHz and can measure antennas up to 5 feet in diameter at that frequency. Together, these chambers provide a full range of antenna measurement services for varying antenna dimensions and weights from 400 MHz to 50 GHz.

The chambers share a dedicated air conditioned control room with state-of-the-art high performance RF instrumentation for test, analysis and processing of antennas using NSI2000 Professional software. They feature NSI RF systems with high speed Panther receivers and synthesizers, and support pulse measurement and multi-port antenna PIN switching for measurement speeds up to 2 million points per second. In addition, the control room provides closed circuit TV monitoring, high end processing workstations with large oversized flat screen monitors, wired and wireless internet service, and ample work areas.

The chambers are staffed by the same team of NSI expert engineers that are leaders in the design and development of complex antenna measurement systems.

Multi-Purpose PNF, CNF, and SNF Chamber
Chamber 1 measures 25' (7.6 m) wide, 30' (9.1 m) deep, and 21' (6.4 m) high. The back wall of the chamber is lined with 36” (0.9 m) pyramidal absorber. The scanner in this chamber is a high precision NSI-300V-12x12, 12’ (3.7 m) by 12’ (3.7 m) planar scanner capable of testing antennas up to 10’ (3 m)x10’ (3 m) from 1 GHz and beyond. It also has a low profile precision 8' (2.4 m) Z-linear translation stage, with an NSI-SC-5638 20" (500 mm) diameter high capacity positioner, to allow accurate positioning of antennas up to 10,000 lbs (4536 kg) in weight. The floor of this chamber has been reinforced with an 18 inch isolated “T” slab to support the scanner and AUT slide for high stability and accurate measurements. For CNF and SNF measurements the chamber can be easily upgraded for antennas up to 12' (3.7 m) in diameter if required.

The RF system for Chamber 1 features the NSI-RF-90001D RF high performance state-of-the-art antenna measurement system. This system is based on the NSI 9000 High-Performance Panther Receiver with integrated High-speed Beam Controller, dual Panther 7020 20 GHz sources (RF & LO), and the NSI Distributed Frequency Converter with remote mixers. The Panther 9000 receiver supports pulse measurement and multi-port antenna PIN switching for measurement speeds up to 2 million points per second. The Panther 7020 frequency sources have a settling time of 100 microseconds. This RF system provides frequency coverage from 1 to 50 GHz, and with additional millimeter wave modules can provide measurements up to 110 GHz.

For specific details on your antenna test requirements, chamber availability, or to learn more about NSI test services, please contact the NSI Sales Department.