Extending the Frequency Range of Reverberation Chamber to Millimeter Waves for 5G Over-the-Air Testing

The wireless industry is getting deeply engaged in the 5th generation communication standard. Despite lack of clear definitions, there are some parameters of the emerging standard which are commonly accepted. Higher frequencies (frequencies above 6 GHz) in the millimeter wave spectrum will be a key component for enabling a massive increase of the available bandwidth and thus data rates for the end users. This will however impose challenges on the test equipment for the wireless devices operating on these frequencies. The Over-the-Air test facilities used today for 4G and legacy standards are optimized for operation below 6 GHz. A frequently used tool for Over-theAir performance assessment is the reverberation chamber. This paper will analyze the feasibility of the reverberation chamber to be extended to the frequencies considered for 5G.