5g Antenna system OTA testing with plane wave generator in range-constrained anechoic chamber

For 5G antenna systems of high frequency and large size, the traditional far-field OTA testing would require a very large and thus expensive anechoic chamber to meet the measurement range. In this paper, an alternative method is discussed that uses a radiator array instead of a single probe to generate planar wavefronts across the DUT within a limited range. Least square method is used to calculate complex weights of the radiators. Simulation results show that with sufficient number of radiators, the power and phase variation across DUT under range-constrained condition is comparable to that in the normal far-field setting, hence providing an effective alternative for OTA testing in small-scale chambers.