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Production Line Antenna Test Platform

A production-style antenna validation platform that combines two-polarization thermal imaging, motion automation, and RF relay control to measure e-field response repeatably across a device under test.

View system design Thermal results Implementation details

STM32 Nucleo grblHAL TB6600 RF relay control Thermal imaging

Thermal comparison heatmap grid from the antenna validation workflow — Thermal validation artifacts from the RF-cycle workflow, comparing camera-derived measurements against Microsanj reference exports.

Overview

Built to make antenna e-field checks repeatable.

The platform emulates a production test station for antenna e-field validation. It coordinates staged motion, RF excitation, relay selection, and thermal camera capture so the same device can be measured under controlled polarization and timing conditions.

The work spans embedded control, bench wiring, data acquisition, and validation analysis: a NUCLEO-F446RE runs grblHAL, TB6600 stepper drivers move the fixture, relay outputs select RF paths, and thermal imagery is post-processed against reference Microsanj exports.

System

Hardware and software control loop

Motion control

STM32 Nucleo running grblHAL drives X/Y/Z step and direction outputs into external TB6600 drivers.

RF state control

Auxiliary outputs switch RF relay channels and fixture utilities through dedicated driver stages.

Thermal capture

Hot/cold RF cycles are captured with thermal imaging, including two-polarization acquisition paths.

Validation

Generated heatmaps, profiles, and correlation metrics compare production captures against reference data.

PC control scripts

STM32 Nucleo + grblHAL

TB6600 axes + RF relays

Thermal camera validation

Results

Thermal acquisition and comparison artifacts

Delta-only thermal heatmap grid — Delta-only heatmaps isolate RF-induced thermal structure from baseline camera response.

Boson thermal camera temperature map — Boson temperature mapping and camera-side calibration experiments.

Microsanj reference thermal image — Microsanj reference thermal export used to sanity-check the validation workflow.

Implementation

Engineering scope

Controller bring-up

Remapped grblHAL board signals for direct Nucleo-header wiring, documented pin assignments, and created serial CLI commands for unlock, homing, jogging, sequencing, and named output tests.

Bench integration

Integrated common-anode TB6600 step/direction wiring, relay output mappings, and driver-stage requirements for RF switching, vacuum, and air-blast control.

Measurement workflow

Built repeatable hot/cold RF-cycle capture flows and comparison scripts for thermal deltas, profiles, histograms, and reference-file validation.