High-Volume OTA Production Testing of Millimeter-Wave Antenna-in-Package Modules

This article discusses challenges and methods for production-level over-the-air (OTA) test of antenna-in-package (AiP) modules comprising antenna arrays operating at millimeter-wave frequencies. Starting with the requirements of testing specific properties of AiP modules, characteristics of far-field tests as well as different kinds of near-field tests are presented. Considering the constraints of typical automatic test equipment (ATE) used by the semiconductor industry, this article describes technical solutions for the integration of OTA testing into the ATE environment. Practical examples are discussed for testing AiP modules for 5G communication (frequency bands from 24 to 53 GHz). Limitations of the proposed techniques are detailed, and in view of future requirements for testing larger arrays at higher frequency, novel scalable approaches are presented for probing in the reactive near-field of the antenna array radiators.