SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR NEAR-FIELD TESTING OF A PHASED ARRAY ANTENNA

A near-field test system for a phased array antenna includes a probe, a beam forming network, and a computing system. The probe is disposed at a fixed position in a near-field of the phased array antenna and transmits a test beam toward a fixed location on the phased array. The beam forming network is coupled to the phased array and includes a plurality of phase shifters and a beam summer. The phase shifters steer received beams for each antenna element of the phased array to form a planar wave front. The beam summer is coupled to the phase shifters and combines power of the received beams. The computing system is coupled to the beam forming network and scales combined power of the received beams and generates a virtual spectrum for the phased array antenna from scaled power of the received beams.