Method and measurement environment, apparatus to be tested

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12092674-B2
Application number	US-202017129561-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 21, 2020
Priority date	Jun 22, 2018
Publication date	Sep 17, 2024
Grant date	Sep 17, 2024

Abstract

A method for evaluating an apparatus having at least one antenna array, the apparatus configured for forming a plurality of communication beam patterns using the antenna array, includes positioning of the apparatus in a measurement environment or moving/switching the probe/link antenna(s) of the measurement environment around the apparatus adapted to measure beam patterns and controlling the apparatus so as to form a predefined beam pattern of the plurality of communication beam patterns. The method includes measuring the predefined beam pattern using the measurement environment and/or the apparatus.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. Method for evaluating an apparatus comprising at least one antenna array, the apparatus configured for forming a plurality of communication beam patterns using the antenna array, the method comprising:
positioning of the apparatus in a measurement environment or changing the relative position of the probe antenna/antennas of the measurement environment adapted to measure beam patterns or beam correspondence between a transmission beam pattern and a reception beam pattern;
controlling the apparatus so as to form a predefined beam pattern of the plurality of communication beam patterns; and
measuring the predefined beam pattern using the measurement environment or the apparatus;
wherein the predefined beam pattern is a first of a plurality of predefined beam patterns, the plurality of predefined beam patterns being a subset of the plurality of communication beam patterns,
wherein the apparatus is controlled so as to sequentially form the plurality of predefined beam patterns, and wherein the respective predefined beam pattern is measured, the method further comprising:
changing a relative position between the apparatus and the measurement environment after having measured the plurality of predefined beam patterns; and
such that the apparatus is controlled to the plurality of predefined beam patterns or a further plurality of predefined beam patterns in the changed relative position; the method comprising the further plurality of predefined beam patterns in the changed relative position.

2. The method of claim 1 , the method further comprising:
controlling the apparatus so as to form a second predefined beam pattern of the plurality of predefined beam patterns after measuring of the first predefined beam pattern; and
measuring the second predefined beam pattern using the measurement environment or the apparatus.

3. The method of claim 1 , the method further comprising:
controlling the apparatus so as to form a third predefined beam pattern of the plurality of predefined beam patterns during measuring of the first predefined beam pattern; and
measuring the third predefined beam pattern using the measurement environment or the apparatus.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is controlled so as to form the plurality of predefined beam patters or the further plurality of predefined beam patterns in a predefined order.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the predefined beam pattern is a first predefined beam pattern of a plurality of predefined beam patterns, wherein the method is performed such that a predefined sequence of predefined beam patterns is generated by the apparatus and measured with the measurement environment or the apparatus.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining the predefined beam pattern by selecting the predefined beam pattern from the plurality of communication beam patterns.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
controlling the apparatus or a comparable apparatus similar to the apparatus so as to form a calibration beam pattern being one of the plurality of communication beam patterns; and
storing a beam related information indicating the calibration beam pattern in a memory.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein a plurality of calibration beam patterns is formed and a corresponding plurality of beam related information is stored in the memory.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein controlling the apparatus or the comparable apparatus so as to form the calibration beam pattern comprises:
positioning of the apparatus or the comparable apparatus similar to the apparatus so as to comprise a relative position to a link antenna or keeping the position of the apparatus and changing the relative position of the link antenna by movement or switching to another link antenna such that the apparatus or the apparatus forms the calibration beam pattern towards the link antenna.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein controlling the apparatus or the comparable apparatus so as to form the calibration beam pattern further comprises:
controlling the apparatus or the comparable apparatus so as to lock the beam pattern such that the apparatus or the comparable apparatus maintains a relative orientation of the beam pattern relative to a surface of the apparatus when changing the relative position of the apparatus or the comparable apparatus with respect to the link antenna.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein the calibration beam pattern is a first calibration beam pattern and wherein the beam related information is a first beam related information, the method comprising:
changing the relative position between the apparatus or the comparable apparatus and the link antenna such that the apparatus or the comparable apparatus forms a second calibration beam pattern;
storing a second beam related information indicating the second calibration beam pattern in the memory.

12. The method of claim 7 , wherein the controlling of the apparatus so as to form the predefined beam pattern comprises reading the beam related information from the memory and forming the predefined beam pattern according to the beam related information.

13. The method of claim 7 , wherein the beam related information comprises at least one of
a beam/beam sweep identifier;
an information indicating one or a multitude of beam-related parameter for a transmission or reception beam to be applied to the antenna array or the associated baseband signal which is to be communicated using the antenna array;
a beam polarization;
a carrier frequency of the beam pattern;
a beam correspondence flag; and
a beam correspondence ID.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein controlling of the apparatus so as to form the predefined beam pattern of the plurality of communication beam patterns comprises transmitting a configuration to the apparatus by the measurement environment, the signal comprising information indicating at least one of:
an activation time or a time duration of the predefined beam pattern;
an activation time or a time duration of a beam sweep comprising the predefined beam pattern;
a time at the apparatus or the measurement environment so as to enable time synchronization;
an order of predefined beam patterns to be formed by the apparatus; and
a Tx-Rx flag.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein beam related information is stored in a memory of the DUT, wherein the signal indicates the beam related information.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the controlling of the Dutch as to form the predefined beam pattern comprises transmitting a signal from the measurement environment to the DUT, the signal comprising information unambiguously indicating the predefined beam pattern or a sequence of a plurality of predefined beam patterns to be formed by the DUT.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein measuring the predefined beam pattern comprises at least one of:
measuring a total radiated power of the beam pattern;
measuring an equivalent isotropic radiated power;
measuring an effective isotropic sensitivity;
measuring Rx or Tx complex radiation pattern in magnitude and phase;
measuring Rx or Tx complex radiation pattern in relative magnitude and relative phase;
measuring a direction of the beam pattern relative to the apparatus;
and measuring of
a spherical coverage,
a covered spherical beam grid density,
a specific beam pattern of all activated beams of the set of beams,
at least one side lobe of the main beams/beam patterns,
a scalability/linearity/hysteresis of beam pattern changes/switching/inflating/deflating,

Assignees

• Fraunhofer Ges Forschung

Inventors

• Haustein Thomas
• Leather Paul Simon Holt
• Askar Ramez
• Raschkowski Leszek
• Grossmann Marcus
• Landmann Markus

Classifications

• H04B7/06952

  Selecting one or more beams from a plurality of beams, e.g. beam training, management or sweeping · CPC title

• G01R29/10 Primary

  Radiation diagrams of antennas · CPC title

• H04B17/11

  for calibration · CPC title

• H04B7/088

  using beam selection · CPC title

• H04B7/0495

  using overlapping sectors in the same base station to implement MIMO for antennas · CPC title