Tutorials

TU08: Using Reverberation Chambers for the Testing of Wireless Devices
Chairs: Christopher L. Holloway and John Ladbury National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), USA

Thursday 6 April 2006
9:00 – 13:00

This tutorial will introduce reverberation chambers and show how they can be used as reliable and repeatable test facilities for the testing of wireless communications devices. These tests range from controlled simulation of multipath environments to the testing the performance of wireless devices.

The tutorial is designed for research engineers, test engineers, and product designers as well as individuals who are working in developing new standards through standard committees would also find this tutorial beneficial in that it would educate them in an alternative test facility for the testing of wireless devices.

The reverberation chamber is an emerging test facility for the wireless community. This tutorial will inform the wireless community on the basics of how reverberation chambers operate and how they can be applied to the testing of wireless devices. In particular, the reverberation chamber can be used to establish a controllable K-factor for device evaluation, to evaluate antenna characteristics, to determine total radiated power, and for immunity testing, all over a broad frequency range.

Topics to be covered include:

Schedule:
9:00 Welcome and Overview
Christopher L. Holloway, NIST, USA
9:05 Introduction, Overview, and Applications of Reverberation Chambers
Christopher L. Holloway, NIST, USA
9:50 Overview of 5 Years R&D on Characterizing Wireless Devices in Rayleigh Fading Using Reverberation Chambers
Per-Simon Kildal, Chalmers University of Technology and Bluetest AB, Sweden
10:35 Reverberation Chamber Applications at Motorola
Lorenzo Ponce de Leon, Motorola,, USA
11:05-11:20 BREAK
11:20 Use of Small Reverberation Chambers for Wireless Measurements
Garth D'Abreu, ETS-Lindgren
11:40 Bio- EM RF Exposure Studies with Reverberation Chambers
John Ladbury, NIST, USA
12:20 Aerospace Applications of Reverberation Chamber Techniques
Dennis Lewis, Boeing Metrology Laboratory, USA
Scott Marston, Boeing Systems Integration , USA
12:50 EM Measurements in Complex Cavities and Reverberation Chamber
Mike Slocum, US NAVY, USA
International Standard IEC 61000-4-21: Testing and measurement techniques - Reverberation chamber test methods

Since 2000, Christopher L. Holloway has been with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Boulder, CO, where he works on electromagnetic theory. He worked as a staff scientist with Electro Magnetic Applications, Inc., in Lakewood, CO. His responsibilities included theoretical analysis and finite-difference time-domain modeling of various electromagnetic problems. From the fall of 1992 to 1994 he was with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Co. While at NCAR his duties included wave propagation modeling, signal processing studies, and radar systems design. From 1994 to 2000 he was with the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) at the U.S. Department of Commerce in Boulder, Co., where he was involved in wave propagation studies

He is also on the Graduate Faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

He has published 50 papers published in refereed journals, has given over 100 invited talks and conference presentations, has had 63 conference papers published, has written two book chapters, has 20 Technical Reports, and written two technique magazine articles. He holds U.S. Patents on electromagnetic absorbing materials, radar systems and antennas for atmospheric radars.

Dr. Holloway was awarded the 1999 Department of Commerce Silver Medal for his work in electromagnetic theory and the 1998 Department of Commerce Bronze Medal for his work on printed circuit boards.

Dr. Holloway is a member of Commission A of the International Union of Radio Science and is an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility. Dr. Holloway is the chairman for the Technical Committee on Computational Electromagnetics (TC-9) of the IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility Society. Dr. Holloway is a Senior Member of the IEEE and is presently serving as a Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Electromagnetics Compatibility Society.

He has organized over 15 workshops and tutorials at several national and international symposiums. He has organized and served as the general chairman for the 1998, 1999, and 2000 International Symposium on Advanced Radio Technologies. Within the IEEE EMC Society he serves as Chairman of TC-9 (Computational Electromagnetics) and is a founding member of TC-11 (Nano-Technology) and serve as co-chair for TC-11. He has also served as a Co-Guest Editor for the IEEE EMC Transactions Special Issue on Nano-Technology and for the IEEE EMC Transactions Special Issue in Honor of Dr. Motohisa Kanda (of NIST). He was also a Co-Guest Editor of a special issue on propagation modeling in the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society Journal.

He served on ANSI working group 1-15.6 to revise the ANSI 63.5 standard on antenna calibration. He is severing on IEEE standards working group 299, which is related to the shielding of enclosures. He has served on an IEEE Standards Committee on Vehicular Radar. He serves on the technical steering committee for the EMC-EUROPE Conference 1996 – 2006.