Products & Services
The main capabilities at NPL include:
- National standards for the RF and Microwave parameters of most fundamental interest to scientists, engineers and end-users: impedance, power, attenuation and noise parameters. Many of the NPL standard facilities provide some of the highest levels of accuracy available anywhere in the world.
- National standards for ‘free-field’ parameters: antenna gain for both wire (e.g. EMC) and many forms of microwave antenna; field strength, power flux density and Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) standards to cover both human exposure (Health and Safety) and EMC requirements. There are also traceable facilities for determining antenna pattern and for field mapping on both micro and macro-scales.
- Many facilities for determining the electromagnetic properties of materials, these include dielectrics (both high and low loss, solid and liquid), microwave magnetics and structured material, e.g. meta-material, Frequency Selective Surface (FSS) and other composite materials.
- Communications waveform analysis capability (digital and analogue). Fast pulse and time-domain capability for rise-time measurement, e.g. for oscilloscope rise time and to enable measurements on materials and devices up to terahertz (THz) frequencies.
All of these facilities are backed up by validated software both for accurate measurement and for modelling, in most cases this software is developed in-house at NPL.
RF & Microwave products & services
- Calibrated antennas are essential for applications such as satellite communications, Earth remote sensing, and Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) testing. NPL has developed a comprehensive range of facilities for calibrating antennas covering the frequency range from 20 Hz up to 110 GHz.
- NPL has produced documents and reports that give guidance on the use of antennas and field probes.
- NPL offers a calibration service for the wide range of attenuators and signal generators available on the commercial market.
- CAI benchmark testing for TV aerials.
- Service to design electromagnetic field surveys on-site measurement programs from low frequency (kHz) up to microwave bands (GHz).
- Calibration of a wide variety of antenna types, including monopole, tuneable dipole, biconical, log-periodic dipole array, biconical-log hybrid antennas, conical log-spiral, loop and horn antennas.
- A range of facilities and measurement techniques for calibrating microwave standard gain horns, near-field scanning probes, reflectors and base station antennas.
- Measurement of the radiation performance of Mobile Phone Base-Station Antennas in its Spherical Near-Field Range.
- Traceability, development and supply of primary power standards and transfer systems.
- NPL provides a comprehensive service for the calibration of power flux density (PFD) and field strength probes and sensors traceable to national standards.
- SMART facility is available for minimally-invasive measurements of electrically-small, and smart, antennas at frequencies above 400 MHz.
- NPL has the UK's National Standards for Specific Absorption Rate (SAR), and offers calibration services for SAR probes in head and muscle simulating liquids.
- SAR is the specific absorption rate of radio frequency energy in a material and has the unit W kg-1.
- NPL is able to calibrate a large variety of antennas in the VHF/UHF band.