Effects of user's hand on the measurement setup in MIMO over-the-air testing

In this paper, we provide the guidelines for the selection of suitable measurement setups for reliable and cost-effective multi-probe based over-the-air test system to measure the practical MIMO device with hand effect, in reference to the free-space. The guidelines are provided for the required number of probes, minimum probe distance from the device under test (DUT), and optimum size of DUT's rotation. The planewave synthesis technique based on spherical wave theory is used to emulate a reference channel model. Practical antennas in a mobile device operating at 806 MHz with the dimensions of 12.95 cm × 6.67 cm × 0.92 cm are used as DUT. The simulated results show that minimum 6 dual-polarized probes are required for the DUT with hand effect, while 4 dual-polarized probes are needed for the DUT in free space. The minimum probe distance is 100 cm and the optimum size of the azimuthal rotation step of the DUT in the measurement is 45° regardless of the scenarios and users' hand effect.