National Instruments Corporation

Martin Obermaier

Dirk Plettemeier

Thomas Deckert

Marc Vanden Bossche

Martin Laabs

Vincent Kotzsch

Johannes Dietmar Herbert Lange

A system and method for testing an antenna-under-test (AUT). A multi-probe antenna array transmitter is moved to a plurality of positions within a scan area. At each position, each probe antenna element of the transmitter transmits a near-field (NF) over-the-air (OTA) signal to the AUT. An alignment procedure is performed to align transmission locations for signals transmitted by different ones of the plurality of probe antenna elements. Correction factors are determined that characterize amplitude and phase discrepancies between the probe antenna elements of the transmitter. The correction factors are applied to the signals, and the corrected signals are combined at each transmission location to obtain average signals. A far-field (FF) reception pattern for the AUT is determined based on a discrete Fourier transform of the average signals and stored in a non-transitory computer readable memory medium.

Combining signals transmitted from multiple probe antennas in over-the-air antenna measurements

A system and method for testing an antenna-under-test (AUT). A multi-probe antenna array receiver is moved to a plurality of positions within a scan area. At each position, each probe antenna element of the receiver receives a near-field (NF) over-the-air (OTA) signal from the AUT. An alignment procedure is performed to align reception locations for signals received by different ones of the plurality of probe antenna elements. Correction factors are determined that characterize amplitude and phase discrepancies between the probe antenna elements of the receiver. The correction factors are applied to the received signals, and the corrected signals are combined at each reception location to obtain average signals. A far-field (FF) transmission pattern for the AUT is determined based on a discrete Fourier transform of the average signals and stored in a non-transitory computer readable memory medium.

Combining signals received from multiple probe antennas in over-the-air antenna measurements

A system and method for testing devices such as integrated circuits (IC) with integrated antenna arrays configured for wireless signal reception. The method performs a calibration operation on a reference device under test (DUT). During the calibration operation, the DUT receives a series of first signals from a first far-field (FF) location and a series of array transmissions from a second near-field (NF) location using different beamforming settings, and determines therefrom a set of calibration parameters. The calibration parameters may be used by a probe antenna system (PAS) to transmit an array transmission to the DUT from the second NF location to emulate a single probe or multi-probe transmission from the first FF location.

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Dresden, Germany

Martin Obermaier