MIMO OTA Testing in Small Multi-Probe Anechoic Chamber Setups

OTA testing of MIMO capable terminals is often performed in large anechoic chambers, where planar waves impinging the test area are assumed. Furthermore, reflections from the chamber, and probe coupling are often considered negligible due to the large dimensions of the chamber. This paper investigates the feasibility of reducing the physical dimension of 2D multi-probe anechoic chamber setups for MIMO OTA testing, with the purpose of reducing the cost and space of the setup. In the paper, a channel emulation algorithm and chamber compensation technique are proposed for MIMO OTA testing in small anechoic chambers. The performance deterioration in a small anechoic chamber, i.e., with a ring radius of 0.5 m, is demonstrated via simulations.