octoScope unveils small-footprint OTA test enclosure

The octoBox test station is refrigerator-sized anechoic enclosure.

Deborah M. Sargent -- Test & Measurement World, 8/9/2011 1:30:57 PM

According to RF and wireless product-development company octoScope, its octoBox OTA (over-the-air) test station will transform the way multiradio devices, such as smartphones and USB dongles, are designed, tested, and verified. octoBox enables OTA testing of conventional and MIMO wireless devices in a customizable refrigerator-sized anechoic enclosure that replaces expensive walk-in anechoic chambers.

The dual-chamber RF enclosure houses isolated and controlled OTA test setups for production, quality assurance, and R&D test. octoBox can also be used for conducted testing when test antennas are bypassed with coaxial cabling. Incorporating test instrumentation, test antennas, and an easily accessible chamber for the device under test, octoBox is a self-contained test station.

To achieve repeatable OTA test results, octoBox can be customized to ensure far-field coupling between the DUT antennas and the test antennas, as well as uniform antenna fields between the DUT antennas and the test antennas with no nearby nulls that can cause sharp amplitude gradients in the field. A single octoBox allows the simultaneous parallel testing of eight or more fully assembled smartphones through their antennas in an area no larger than a typical desk.

octoBox provides optimum isolation up to 6 GHz. It employs right-angle seals on the doors and replaceable gasketing to seal all seams. What’s more, all power and data lines entering the box employ feed-through filters. Signal reflections from the metal walls of the octoBox are absorbed by specialized absorptive foam.

octoScope, www.octoscope.com/English/Products/octoBox/octoBox.html