A New Antenna Diversity Gain Measurement Method Using a Reverberation Chamber

A new method is proposed in this letter to measure the diversity gain of a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna system using a reverberation chamber. The traditional method for this type of measurement requires the MIMO antenna under test (AUT) and also two extra antennas: a transmit antenna and a reference antenna with known radiation efficiency which may not be available in many companies. In the proposed method, one branch of the AUT is used as the reference antenna; thus, the requirement for the standard reference antenna can be removed. Results obtained from the new and traditional methods are compared, and very good agreement is achieved. The proposed method reduces the system requirement and measurement time without compromising the measurement accuracy, and is therefore a very attractive method for MIMO antenna measurements.