Measurement of Antenna Efficiency in Reverberation Chamber - Effect of Loading

There have been several reverberation chamber (RC) techniques proposed over the years devoted to measuring antenna efficiencies; however, even though numerous approaches consider the potential effects of the load within the RC, experimental results show a significant reduction in measured efficiencies, both total and radiated, if the chamber loading increases. In this paper an evaluation of the loading effects on the efficiency of three horn antennas measured by using the three-antenna approach is presented. A simple circuit model is also offered in order to explain the effect of loading on measured efficiency.