R&S®PWC200
Plane wave converter for 5G massive MIMO base station OTA testing (156 Vivaldi elements)
- Category: Antenna test systems and OTA chambers
- Manufacturer: Rohde & Schwarz
- Quiet zone diameter: > 1.05 m
- Antenna array elements: 156 wideband Vivaldi antennas
- Test distance (3.5 GHz / 1 m aperture): 1.5 m
- Equivalent far-field distance (3.5 GHz / 1 m aperture): 23.5 m
- Maximum aperture under test: 1 m
- Electronic beam tilt angle: ±10 °
- Volume compared with a CATR system: 4x smaller
- Antenna array type: Bidirectional phased array
- Data sheet: Download PDF
- Product brochure: Download PDF
- External link: Official product page
Product overview
The R&S®PWC200 plane wave converter is designed for testing 5G massive MIMO base stations in R&D, quality assurance, production and over-the-air (OTA) conformance testing. It uses a bidirectional array of 156 wideband Vivaldi antennas placed in the radiating near field of the device under test (DUT). The phased antenna array forms a plane wave inside the specified quiet zone, enclosing the 5G massive MIMO base station DUT and allowing radiated power and transceiver measurements — EVM, ACLR, SEM and others — in real time. The R&S®PWC200 shortens the distance needed for far-field characterization dramatically: at 3.5 GHz, OTA testing of a 5G base station with a 1 m aperture needs a test distance of only 1.5 m, against the 23.5 m a conventional direct far-field measurement would require. At a quarter of the volume of a CATR (compact antenna test range) system, it saves space in test laboratories and production facilities without sacrificing measurement accuracy.
Key features
- The phased antenna array forms a plane wave in a quiet zone of ø > 1.05 m
- No near-field to far-field transformation required
- A quarter of the volume of a CATR system, saving considerable test space
- Built-in self-test features that keep the system dependable
- Suitable for both R&D and production test
- Automated field calibration, simple to operate
- Electronic near-field scanning for power density measurements
- Quiet zone diameter and test distance are freely configurable
- Electronic beam steering, supporting verification at tilt angles of ±10°
- Complete software toolset with a clear user interface and configuration data sets in CSV format
Typical applications
- 5G massive MIMO base station testing (R&D and production)
- Over-the-air (OTA) conformance testing to 3GPP TS 38.141-2 Release 16
- Base station quality assurance testing
- RF receiver conformance testing of 5G NR base stations
- Electronic beam tilt verification
- Production power density measurement without a positioning system
Frequently asked questions
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