Improved Over-the-Air Phased Array Calibration Based on Measured Complex Array Signals

Zhang, Fengchun; Fan, Wei; Wang, Zhengpeng; Zhang, Yusheng

doi:10.1109/lawp.2019.2911725

Cited by 29 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 10 publications

(23 reference statements)

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“…The PWG operates at 2.6 GHz with a dimension of 1m × 1.124m. Open-ended waveguide feed is used for the PWG element with a dimension of 72mm × 34mm and each element's amplitude and phase are well calibrated by face-to-face calibration method [18], [19] and mid-field calibration method [20], respectively. This PWG has a uniform configuration along y axis, with an element spacing 86.5mm, but a non-uniform configuration in the x axis.…”

Section: Numerical Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robust Plane Wave Generator Design in Small Anechoic Chamber Setup Using Parameterized Field Method

et al. 2020

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Plane Wave Generator (PWG) has attracted great research interest in the industry and academia for sub-6 GHz massive MIMO base station (BS) measurement, thanks to its low-cost and smaller system setup. One major concern in the small setup is its high reflectivity level inside the anechoic chamber, which might distort the quiet zone performance significantly. Meanwhile, it is critical that the quiet zone performance is insusceptible to system inaccuracies. However, these two aspects are largely overlooked in the plane wave synthesis (PWS) study in the literature. In this paper, a new PWS strategy is proposed based on parametrized field distribution over an enlarged sampling area. The proposed method offers robust design and low reflectivity level. The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed PWS strategy is demonstrated in a numerical simulation. INDEX TERMS Excitation coefficient optimization, over-the-air testing, plane wave generators, small anechoic chamber.

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Section: Numerical Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robust Plane Wave Generator Design in Small Anechoic Chamber Setup Using Parameterized Field Method

et al. 2020

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“…10 (c) presents a 44 coplanar quad ridged horn antenna array, which is used as a conventional array to compare the reflectivity with the designed low scattering probe antenna array. The detailed dimensions of the horn antenna array were given in [30]. The horn antenna array has an element spacing of 108 mm in the coplanar structure (i.e.…”

Section: Non-coplanar Pwg Implementationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low Scattering Plane Wave Generator Design Using a Novel Non-Coplanar Structure for Near-Field Over-the-Air Testing

et al. 2020

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Plane Wave Generator (PWG) has recently attracted great attention from industry and academia for over-the-air (OTA) testing of base station (BS) antennas in the fifth-generation (5G) wireless communication systems. This paper aims to reduce the scattering from the PWG to the antenna under test (AUT), which might be problematic in the near-field OTA testing. First, we introduce a low monostatic radar cross section (RCS) PWG array element design. The PWG is also loaded with pyramidal microwave absorbing material (MAM) to suppress the multi-reflections between the AUT and the PWG. Furthermore, unlike coplanar PWG design generally reported in the literature, a novel non-coplanar design is proposed to realize the destructive interference of the scattered signals from the PWG, thereby significantly reducing the multiple reflections. PWG elements in the non-coplanar design are placed in the propagation direction according to planar and non-planar field distribution on the PWG radiated from the BS AUT. To validate our proposed design, a 4×4 PWG array with a 108 mm element spacing and a non-coplanar structure is developed and experimentally validated. The measured results show that the second incident wave of the proposed non-coplanar PWG array structure based on non-planar field distribution is 7.9 dB lower than that of the classical coplanar PWG design from 2.3 GHz to 3.8 GHz, and 1.9 dB lower than that of the proposed non-coplanar PWG array structure based on planar field distribution, which demonstrates the effectiveness and robustness of our proposed design. INDEX TERMS 5G, OTA testing, PWG, low scattering design, probe antenna design, non-coplanar PWG structure. I. INTRODUCTION ASSIVE multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) is one of the key technologies employed at the base stations (BSs) in the sub-6 GHz 5G wireless communication systems [1], [2]. Accurate measurement of the massive MIMO BS antenna systems is essential in the performance and conformance testing. Over-the-air (OTA) testing is a competitive method to evaluate BS antennas due to its advantage of convenient operation and cost savings, compared to conventional cable conducted testing [3], [4]. The plane-wave generator (PWG), which aims to approximate a plane wave in the quiet zone with a nearfield distance, has attracted great interest recently [5]-[10]. Compared with the traditional antenna measurement methods (e.g., near-field to far field transformation, direct far-field and compact antenna testing range (CATR)), the PWG has the advantages of compact size, fast measurement, low-cost, and support for both continuous wave (CW) and modulated signal measurement. The PWG has a good potential to support for massive MIMO BS antenna parameter measurement, array calibration, radio frequency (RF) transmit and receive performance measurements. Extensive works have been reported on the PWG design in the literature, e.g. algorithms to determine the complex excitation coefficients for the PWG element [11]-[13], and guidance to design a good PWG [14]. Multiple refle...

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“…A recursive matrix-forming method was proposed in [2], which can be used to generate well-conditioned excitation matrix. The method was further improved in [4], where the accumulated error at the first array element can be effectively removed. In [3], an algorithm was proposed to calibrate phased array working in the default beamforming mode.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phased Array Calibration Based on Measured Complex Signals in a Compact Multiprobe Setup

Zhang

Wang

Zhang

et al. 2022

Antennas Wirel. Propag. Lett.

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Phased array calibration is typically carried out in plane-wave conditions, which requires expensive far-field setups. This letter presents a novel phased array calibration method based on measured complex array signal, which works in the cost-effective compact testing setup. The basic principle is to employ multi-probe antennas in a short measurement distance such that we can effectively retrieve the array element patterns in the boresight direction based on the recorded complex signals at the multiple probes using the interpolation technique. Both theoretical derivations and measurement validations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

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Improved Over-the-Air Phased Array Calibration Based on Measured Complex Array Signals

Cited by 29 publications

References 10 publications

Robust Plane Wave Generator Design in Small Anechoic Chamber Setup Using Parameterized Field Method

Robust Plane Wave Generator Design in Small Anechoic Chamber Setup Using Parameterized Field Method

Low Scattering Plane Wave Generator Design Using a Novel Non-Coplanar Structure for Near-Field Over-the-Air Testing

Phased Array Calibration Based on Measured Complex Signals in a Compact Multiprobe Setup

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