K-Factor Evaluation in a Hybrid Reverberation Chamber Plus CATR OTA Testing Setup

This paper investigates achieving diverse K-factors using a Reverberation Chamber (RC) with a Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR) system. It explores six hybrid “RC plus CATR” configurations, involving different excitations of the Rich Isotropic Multipath (RIMP) field and CATR-generated plane waves, with some setups including absorbers. A fixed horn antenna points towards the CATR in all configurations. The study found that the null hypothesis of Rayleigh or Rician probability distributions for received signal envelope could not be rejected, with RIMP setups primarily conforming to Rayleigh distribution and all setups showing Rician distribution. Various K-factors were obtained, but no generalizable method for achieving the desired K-factor was identified. The paper also estimates K-factor as a function of frequency in the 24.25–29.5 GHz band. Smaller K-factors exhibit larger fluctuations, while larger K-factors remain relatively stable, with consistent fluctuations across the frequency range.