Accuracy in Reverberation Chamber Antenna Correlation Measurements

Mobile communication terminals with multiple antennas for simultaneous reception of a signal, e.g. for diversity or MIMO implementation, become more and more common. In such terminals the correlation coefficient of the signals received by two antennas is an important parameter. There are several methods for measuring the correlation coefficient. A fast and low-cost method is reverberation chamber measurements. This paper presents a numerical study of the accuracy of this method. Monte Carlo simulations are performed in which the correlation coefficient is estimated from data sequences with known correlation coefficient, with various types of errors applied. Average and spread of the estimated coefficients are presented, and conclusions are drawn on what to consider when designing a reverberation chamber for correlation coefficient measurements.