Phased-Array Channel Sounders

NIST has designed and assembled a 60 GHz channel sounder based on phased-array antennas. Our newest 28 GHz boards retain most of the features of the 60 GHz system, with important improvements: 2 GHz bandwidth, scanning is possible in elevation plane as addition to azimuthal scan, the array can generate V- and H-polarized beams simultaneously, and system performs switched beamforming in post-processing. Thanks to these features we can sweep a 3D double-omnidirectional dual-polarized channel in just 1.3 ms, to realize mobile channel sounding.

More details about our phased-array channel sounders can be found in the references below:

[1] D. Caudill, J. Chuang, S.Y. Jun, C. Gentile, N. Golmie, “Real-Time mmWave Channel Sounding through Switched Beamforming with 3-D Dual-Polarized Phased-Array Antennas,” IEEE Trans. on Microwave Theory and Techniques (Early Access), September 2021. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9527393 

[2] S. Y. Jun, D. Caudill, J. Senic, C. Gentile, J. Chuang and N. Golmie, “Over-The-Air Calibration of a Dual-Beam Dual-Polarized 28-GHz Phased-Array Channel Sounder,” IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation, July 2020. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9330179

[3] D. Caudill, P. B. Papazian, C. Gentile, J. Chuang and N. Golmie, “Omnidirectional Channel Sounder With Phased-Array Antennas for 5G Mobile Communications,” IEEE Trans. on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 67, no. 7, pp. 2936-2945, July 2019. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8698335

[4] P. Papazian, D. Caudill, C. Gentile, J. Chuang, N. Golmie, “62.5-GHz Phased-Array Channel Sounder for Double-Directional Angle Estimation,” IEEE European Conf. on Antennas and Propagation, March 2019. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8739787