Extension of dynamic range of emitter and detector circuits of spread spectrum-based antenna test range

An antenna test range comprising:

• a test signal source, spaced apart from an antenna under test and being operative to emit a test signal that is incident upon said antenna under test, said test signal source including a cascaded arrangement of a plurality of N mixer stages through successive ones of which a carrier signal is coupled, and a direct spreading PN generator that is operative to couple a plurality of different, relatively low rate, PN spreading sequences, that are mutually offset in time by a fraction of a chip, to respective ones of said plurality of N mixer stages, and thereby produce, at an output of an Nth mixer stage of said plurality of N mixer stages, a direct sequence spread spectrum carrier signal as said test signal having its energy spread out over a bandwidth that is N times the spreading bandwidth of an individual one of said PN spreading sequences;
• a receiver coupled to said antenna under test, and being operative to demodulate a signal received by said antenna under test, and to correlate a replica of said PN spreading sequences of said test signal with the demodulated signal so as to extract energy in said test signal and exclude energy in unwanted signals that may be incident upon said antenna under test;
• and
• a signal processor, coupled to said receiver, and being operative to process the test signal energy extracted by said receiver and derive a measure of one or more characteristics of said antenna under test.