Blind Calibration of Phase Drift in Millimeter-Wave Channel Sounders

Published

June 11, 2020

Author(s)

Jack Chuang, Jelena Senic, Chunmei Liu, Camillo Gentile, Sung Yun Jun, Derek Caudill

Abstract

Millimeter-wave channel sounders are much more sensitive to phase drift than their microwave counterparts by virtue of shorter wavelength. This matters when coherently phasing (electronic or mechanical) antenna scans collected over seconds, minutes, or even hours in order to obtain directional channel data. To eliminate phase drift, a synchronization cable between the transmitter and receiver is required, limiting deployment range and flexibility indoors, and in most scenarios precluding outdoor operation. Instead, we propose a blind technique to correct for phase drift by post-processing the channel data collected; the technique is referred to as blind because it obviates the need for a known reference signal and, as such, works even in non-line-of-sight conditions when the (known) direct path is undetectable. To substantiate the technique, it was tested on both simulated and real measurement data collected with our 60-GHz virtual-array channel sounder. The technique was demonstrated robust enough to deal with the most severe case of phase drift (uniformly distributed phase) over a 60-minute scan duration in non-line-of-sight and in low signal-to-noise conditions.

Citation

IEEE Access Journal

Volume

8

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3001852

Local Download

Keywords

mmWave, clock drift, calibration, phased-array antennas, phase coherence, beamforming

Citation

Chuang, J. , Senic, J. , Liu, C. , Gentile, C. , Jun, S. and Caudill, D. (2020), Blind Calibration of Phase Drift in Millimeter-Wave Channel Sounders, IEEE Access Journal, [online], https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3001852, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=930351 (Accessed October 8, 2025)