Assessment of a contactless characterization method for integrated antennas

It is not a straightforward task to determine the antenna characteristics of an integrated antenna. In order to measure its input impedance, a contactless characterization method (CCM) can be used. In this paper, the sensitivity of a CCM is assessed. It is shown that small offsets in the position of the antenna-under-test in between measurements can lead to severe errors in the determined input impedance. Moreover, accurate knowledge of the used terminations is essential to acquire accurate results. Furthermore, it is shown that the use of an anechoic environment is not a necessity for this CCM, making this method attractive to be used in many application domains. Finally, the CCM is used to determine the input impedance of an arbitrary antenna. A good match between the measured input impedance via a directly contacted measurement and via the CCM is achieved.