Over-The-Air Calibration of a Dual-Beam Dual-Polarized 28-GHz Phased-Array Channel Sounder

Published

July 9, 2020

Author(s)

Sung Yun Jun, Derek Caudill, Jelena Senic, Camillo Gentile, Jack Chuang, Nada T. Golmie

Abstract

This paper describes an over-the-air calibration procedure for the impulse response of a 28-GHz phased-array antenna channel sounder. The silicon-germanium (SiGe) antenna board is composed from two 8x8 planar arrays; each array can generate a distinct beam in the vertical and horizontal polarizations that can be steered in both azimuth and elevation within ±50° and ±25°, respectively. As part of the calibration procedure, unique pre-distortion filters were designed per steer angle, achieving a peak-to-sidelobe ratio in the impulse response of up to 56.5 dB, with less than 1 dB variation across the steer angles. Critically, we show that performance degraded up to 8.6 dB when applying the pre-distortion filter designed at one steer angle to the other steer angles, underscoring the need for angle-specific filters. Finally, we show that performance between both polarizations is comparable thanks to the array symmetries in the fabrication process.

Proceedings Title

2020 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and North American Radio Science
Meeting

Conference Dates

July 5-10, 2020

Conference Location

Montreal, CA

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1109/IEEECONF35879.2020.9330179

Local Download

Keywords

channel sounder, 5G wireless communications, propagation channel, calibration, wireless communication

Citation

Jun, S. , Caudill, D. , Senic, J. , Gentile, C. , Chuang, J. and Golmie, N. (2020), Over-The-Air Calibration of a Dual-Beam Dual-Polarized 28-GHz Phased-Array Channel Sounder, 2020 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and North American Radio Science Meeting, Montreal, CA, [online], https://doi.org/10.1109/IEEECONF35879.2020.9330179, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=929603 (Accessed October 1, 2025)