- Sierra Wireless has chosen the R&S ATS1800C test chamber from Rohde & Schwarz, equipped with a gold reflector, to perform OTA tests on its 5G NR communications equipment operating in the FR2 frequency range.
The level of frequencies used by 5G NR communication technologies in particular makes it necessary to carry out OTA (Over The Air) tests rather than conducted tests. For OTA tests, a test chamber shall be compact and yet have a large quiet zone (QZ), or usable measurement area, over a wide frequency range. Rohde & Schwarz has developed the R&S ATS1800C test system to meet these requirements, which are essential for OTA tests of communication devices using 5G NR technology.
The R&S ATS1800C test chamber has a footprint of just 1.3 m2. It is designed to be mobile and can easily be moved from one laboratory to another. It has a 30 cm quiet zone in accordance with the requirements of 3GPP 5G NR testing. Its shielding provides an interference-free environment for continuous measurements on antennas, modules and 5G communication devices.
The CATR gold reflector, designed to transform the incoming spherical wavefront into a plane wave, is manufactured in the test chamber using processes with micrometer-level accuracy.
The test chamber can be used to test devices with a mass of up to 8 kg. It is suitable for testing a variety of active and passive equipment: from chip modules to small cells to tablets and laptops.
The hardware trigger device allows measurements to be made during the precise and continuous movement of the 3D positioner. According to Rohde & Schwarz, this reduces the measurement time by a factor of 5 to 10.
