Polarimetric Scattering with Discrete Raytracing for OTA Analysis

The use of millimetre waves (mmWave) requires the development of novel, robust over the air (OTA) test methods. One low-cost OTA method is based upon an elliptical arrangement of reflectors, to allow conformance testing of devices at mmWave. A discrete ray model is used to predict the influence of reflector shape and arrangement on scattering at 24GHz for two reference surfaces of differing size and a substrate reflector. The model shows a correlation of 0.99 between the predicted and measured scattering for the larger reference surface, and root mean square (RMS) error of -69dB, while for the smaller reference surface the model achieved a correlation of 0.98 between the predicted and measured scattering, and an RMS error of -69dB.