Measurement facilities

Regarding facilities and processes for EM characterization of materials, INTA's Radio Frequency Area is state-of-the-art. Among its facilities are a multipurpose anechoic chamber called BIANCHA (Bistatic ANechoic Chamber) and a high-precision characterization system called POLYBENCH. Both are based on free-space measurement techniques and allow the measurement and characterization of EM materials and complex structures by measuring transmission, reflection, and absorption coefficients.

BIANCHA is a versatile, unique, and innovative measurement facility conceived, designed, and built to enable the performance of a wide variety of EM tests, both radiation and scattering, with an estimated accuracy of 0.5 dB, including bistatic and polarimetric capabilities.

Medida de radomos en BIANCHA.

Figure 1. Measurement of radomes in BIANCHA.

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POLYBENCH is a new design that, although it does not have the versatility of BIANCHA, is characterized by having precisions an order of magnitude higher, being able to discern variations in the reflection, transmission and absorption coefficient of the order of 0.05 dB in amplitude.

Banco de medida de alta precisión POLYBENCH.

Figure 2. POLYBENCH high-precision measuring bench.

In addition to these unique facilities, the Radio Frequency Area has the following capabilities for EM characterization of materials:

SPEAG DAK-12 and DAK-3.5: open coaxial probe measurement system (20 MHz - 20 GHz)
SPEAG Commercial Evaluation Kit for Thin Films of Dielectric Materials (DAK-TL2)
Multiwave EpsiMu 7 mm and PE13: coaxial transmission line up to 18 GHz
Test setup for the ASTM-4935 method for measuring electromagnetic shielding effectiveness
Microstrip transmission line method for junction characterization