Rohde & Schwarz has recently released its first plane wave converter (PWC), the R&S PWC200, for 5G massive MIMO (mMIMO) base station testings for both production and R&D. The R&S PWC200 Plane Wave Converter is a bidirectional array of 156 wideband Vivaldi antennas placed in the radiating near field of the device under test (DUT). The phased antenna array can form planar waves inside a specified quiet zone within the radiating near field of the 5G massive MIMO base station for realtime radiated power and transceiver measurements (EVM, ACLR, SEM, etc.).
Verkotan, a leading wireless test services expert, has now become the the first independent test house to choose this technology to test 5G-NR FR1 base stations over-the-air (OTA). The PWC200 plane wave converter supports a large part of 3GPP certifications and features a bi-directional array of 156 wideband Vivaldi antennas placed in the radiating near-field area close to the device under test (DUT). It is a solution for 5G-NR FR1 OTA testing of base stations addressing manufacturers and test houses, who can use it with the R&S AMS32 system software. It is the first commercially available PWC test solution, and offers an unprecedented small footprint.
For Verkotan, another important criteria for choosing the R&S PWC200 was the possibility to combine the solution with their own existing in-house OTA software applications and test chambers, making their investment more cost-effective. In addition to the Verkotan software, their R&S PWC200 is using software based functionality provided by Rohde & Schwarz, including pretransfer calibration, field simulation and calibration as well as self-test.
With this solution, Verkotan, has now become the first commercial test laboratory providing high-quality accredited test services for base stations and ancillary equipment. According to the company CEO, Kari Komonen, the company mission is to offer the fastest, most accurate test and certification solutions for base station, mobile device and antenna manufacturers.
Click here to view detailed specifications of the R&S PWC200 plane wave converter.
