White Paper: Automotive
Full Vehicle Over-the-Air Antenna Test System
SPONSORED BY: ![]()
Today’s vehicles integrate an increasingly large number of wireless technologies including radar, LTE, Wi-Fi, UWB, GNSS, V2X and DVB to support a range of safety, infotainment and driver assistance features. Each wireless standard requires an antenna located in the interior or on the exterior of the vehicle to support the correct operation, function, and performance of each individual service and must also be able to co-exist with all the other services.
The vehicle manufacturer must ensure correct positioning of all of these high-performance antennas to reduce wiring and costs, while also ensuring optimal radiation patterns and reducing electromagnetic interference (EMI).
The shape of the vehicle, its surrounding materials, high-speed data buses and the RF environment all influence the antenna and overall system performance. Therefore, tests must verify the correct operation and co-existence once integrated into the vehicle. This can be achieved best by thorough and accurate full-vehicle antenna testing over the air (FVAT-OTA) since in most cases antennas cannot be accessed directly for conducted performance measurements due to smart integration inside and outside the car.
Passive and active antenna TX and RX characteristics such as directivity, gain, efficiency, EIRP, sensitivity, and total radiated power need to be measured over the air in the controlled RF environment of an anechoic chamber to ensure accuracy and repeatability. This white paper provides guidance on conducting thorough and accurate full-vehicle antenna testing over the air.
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Overview
The white paper discusses the importance of full vehicle over-the-air (FVAT-OTA) antenna testing in modern vehicles, which increasingly integrate various wireless technologies such as radar, LTE, Wi-Fi, UWB, GNSS, V2X, and DVB. These technologies require precise antenna positioning to ensure optimal performance and minimize electromagnetic interference (EMI).
Traditional open area test sites are inadequate due to external interference and reflections, necessitating the use of controlled environments like fully anechoic chambers. These chambers provide the necessary conditions for accurate antenna measurements, which are critical for verifying the performance of integrated communication systems in vehicles. The paper emphasizes that high-accuracy measurements across a frequency range of 400 MHz to 130 GHz are essential, particularly for next-generation radar applications.
The FVAT-OTA testing system includes components such as a turntable, gantry, vehicle lift, and a single-probe moving antenna arm, which collectively facilitate high-precision active and passive antenna measurements. The single-probe configuration offers advantages over multi-probe systems, including improved measurement accuracy, faster calibration, and finer angular resolution, which are vital for narrow-beam antennas.
Key tasks of the FVAT-OTA system include ensuring the performance of individual vehicle communication systems post-integration, avoiding interference between wireless services, validating antenna performance characteristics, and generating detailed test reports with 2D and 3D spherical plots. The paper also highlights the need for sophisticated software to control the testing process and manage data capture and reporting.
Overall, the white paper underscores the necessity of advanced testing solutions to meet the challenges posed by the integration of multiple wireless technologies in vehicles, ensuring that they function correctly and coexist without interference in real-world scenarios.