Description
Total Radiated Power (TRP) measurements using a phantom head and hand are an important performance requirement for wireless device manufacturers and service providers. The CTIA have developed a Test Plan for Mobile Station Over The Air (OTA) Performance.
IndexSAR, a CTIA listed phantom manufacturer, have collaborated with Emscan to provide a bench top phantom head + hands test fixture (IXBH-400). When combined with the Emscan RFX2 scanner the resultant iOTA system can be used to determine TRP for ‘talk mode’(with phantom head/and hand), or optionally, free space testing (no phantom).
Applications range from antenna design verification to ‘end of line’ manufacturing testing. The iOTA performs fast accurate measurements with excellent correlation, for most devices, when compared to results from a fully compliant OTA test system.Wireless devices can be placed repeatedly against the RFX2 and provide TRP measurements in seconds. Users can execute real-time analysis of their mobile devices and test multiple design iterations. This unique test approach gives designers the freedom to make rapid prototypes and explore new designs, materials and forms. Optimizing complex embedded antenna designs at the desktop without wasting time and money waiting in congested anechoic chamber lines. When used in production testing the iOTA can give confidence that the final assembled product conforms to the original design specifications. The RFX2 has a built in compensation offset compared taken from a database of device results tested in a CTIA compliant TRP test system. For comparison and GO/NOGO testing there is a user defined offset available.DLL programming of the RFX2 allows the user to design any integrated automated test sequence and user interface.