Portable Absorber Housing for Shielded OTA Sensor Testing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for testing over-the-air characteristics of devices, such as radar and Lidar sensors, face challenges in creating a shielded environment due to the rarity and high costs of anechoic halls, making it difficult to minimize external interference and perform tests efficiently.
Innovation Solution
A portable absorber device with an adaptable housing geometry, covered in absorbing material, that can be fitted to various devices to create a shielded environment, reducing internal reflections and allowing for testing at any site without the need for anechoic halls.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If testing is performed in large anechoic halls to shield the test setup, then external interference is minimized, but the costs and complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the essential shielding function from the large anechoic hall environment and concentrates it into a compact absorber device that can be attached directly to the device under test. This removes the need for complex facility-based shielding while maintaining the interference minimization benefit.
Solution Approach 2:
The absorber device acts as an intermediary between the device under test and the external environment. It provides localized electromagnetic shielding at the test subject level rather than requiring facility-wide shielding, thus reducing the complexity of the test environment while still protecting against external interference.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If large anechoic halls are used for testing, then signal shielding is effective, but the availability and accessibility decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The shielding capability is extracted from the fixed facility context and embodied in a portable device that can be deployed at any test location, thereby improving adaptability while maintaining signal shielding effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The test environment transitions from static facility-based shielding to dynamic, portable shielding that can be adapted to different test locations and configurations, enhancing versatility and availability.
3Ease of manufacture
If fixed geometry absorber devices are used, then manufacturing is simplified, but adaptability to different devices under test is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The housing geometry is made adaptable through movable and adjustable components, allowing the same absorber device to be configured for different device under test sizes and shapes while maintaining manageable manufacturing complexity through modular design.
Solution Approach 2:
The absorber device is divided into modular sections with movable parts that can be adjusted independently, enabling adaptation to different geometries without requiring complete redesign for each application.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The absorber device provides a space-saving, variable, and lightweight solution for minimizing signal interference, enabling efficient over-the-air testing of devices like radar and Lidar sensors, even for large vehicles, without impairing their field of view, and allows for flexible setup configurations.
Implementation Method 1
a housing with inner sides, which have an absorbing material... for absorbing signals, such as electromagnetic signals and/or ultrasonic signals
Implementation Method 2
for absorbing signals, such as electromagnetic signals and/or ultrasonic signals... inner sides, which have an absorbing material
Data Source
AI summary
An absorber device for absorbing signals is described. The absorber device has a housing with inner sides having an absorbing material. The housing is adaptable with regard to its geometry. The absorber device is portable. Moreover, a test system for testing radio frequency characteristics of a device under test is described.