Antenna Performance Over-the-Air Testing of 5G Commercial Smartphones

The antenna performance of a mobile terminal is pivotal in determining its communication functionality within a network, especially in areas where network coverage may be lacking. Assessing the overall antenna performance is achieved through over-the-air (OTA) measurements of total radiated power (TRP) and total isotropic sensitivity (TIS) for mobile terminals. Unlike prior studies, the current investigation introduces new radio (NR) band measurements specifically for 5G-enabled mobile phones. In this article, 18 widely used 5G commercial smartphones in Denmark are assessed in terms of their TRP and TIS performance under different usage scenarios and frequency bands. The study reveals a significant dependency on the specific side of the head where the phone is used, with TRP measurements indicating variations of up to 10 dB in the NR band. The TIS performance variance between different hand-only scenarios is relatively minor, up to 3 dB. The body loss maximum for TRP and TIS is around 13 and 7 dB, respectively. This represents a reduction when compared to the values reported in the literature for previous generations of mobile phones.