A novel metasurface lens antenna design for over‐the‐air testing in millimetre wave radio resource management measurement

Abstract

Abstract In millimetre wave (mmWave) frequency band, radio resource management (RRM) performance is characterised in plane wave conditions using radiated over‐the‐air test method, which is a challenging combination of protocol and radio frequency performance measurement. This article presents a novel design of multiple lens‐based compact antenna test ranges (CATRs) to simulate multiple angles of arrival from different base‐stations in RRM measurement. Only four lens‐based CATRs are proposed to create plane wave conditions at the device under test with six different angles of arrival and capable of accurately constructing the wireless propagation condition and minimising the diffraction and scattering between adjacent CATRs. The lens‐based CATR is the key element in the RRM measurement system, which is composed of a metasurface lens for phase alignment and a 2 × 2 feed array antenna for the emission of electromagnetic signals. The function and capability of the proposed lens‐based CATR is validated through simulation and measurement, that the worst‐case amplitude variation in the quiet zone region is lower than ±0.8 dB at 26 GHz, and phase variation is lower than ±7.5° in the designed quiet zone, which could be used in the fifth‐generation mmWave RRM measurement.

Keywords

• antenna testing
• lens antennas
• metamaterial antennas
• microwave measurement
• millimetre wave antennas
• millimetre wave measurement