Reconfigurable OTA chamber: A new paradigm for testing of MIMO wireless devices

Over-the-air testing (OTA) of wireless devices in realistic but repeatable environments is typically performed using either an expensive multi-antenna OTA chamber that provides a high level of multipath control or a low-cost mode-stirred reverberation chamber that offers limited multipath control. We introduce a reconfigurable OTA chamber whose walls are lined with antennas, a few of which may be attached to a channel emulator and the balance of which are connected to reconfigurable impedances. Initial simulations and measurements with this topology demonstrate that through control of the impedances and the port excitations, the chamber offers significant control over the achieved fading distribution, spatial correlation, and power angular spectrum at the device under test.