Making Waves: Revolutionary Probe for 5G

EUmmWV2 probe enables precise very close near-field measurements for frequencies up to 110 GHz.

SPEAG is proud to announce a major breakthrough: a novel millimeter-wave E-field probe that finally allows near-field evaluations of 5G transmitters! The EUmmWV2 probe is based on the pseudo-vector probe design, an IT’IS invention from 1999, which measures not only the magnitude of the field but also derives its polarization. Another big advantage of this probe concept is that sensor angle errors or distortions of the field by the substrate can be largely nullified by calibration. This is particularly important as, at these very high frequencies, field distortions by the substrate are dependent on the wavelength. The design entails two 0.8 mm small sensors, mechanically protected by high-density foam, printed on both sides of a 0.9 mm wide and 0.12 mm thick glass substrate. The body of the probe is specifically constructed to minimize distortion by the scattered fields, resulting in a maximum deviation of less than 0.5 dB from full spherical isotropy.

The EUmmWV2 probe is calibrated between 0.1 – 110 GHz, for which ISO17025 accreditation will be obtained within the next months. Importantly, the probe will be integrated into the DASY6 and ICEy systems together with a novel total-field reconstruction algorithm that allows determination of the total field and power density at distances as small as 2 mm from the surface of the transmitter.

To verify the resolution of the probe, we measured and simulated the electric field 2 mm from a 6 × 7 slot array at 30 GHz. Shown are E_x (small left), E_y (small center), E_z (small right), and the total E-field (large below).