SATIMO, a provider of measurement solutions in electromagnetic field measurements in the microwave frequency range, recently announced StarMIMO, a line of measurement systems for testing MIMO performances of next generation wireless devices.

MIMO  wireless  devices  are  key  to  WiMAX  and  LTE  mobile  broadband  adoption  but  their  testing represents a new challenge for the Telecommunications industry: In  the  past,  characterizing  the  device  was  considered  enough;  now,  with  new  multiple  antennas, testing  and  optimizing  a  device  means  characterizing  its  end-to-end  reception  performance  in  cluttered environments that simulate real RF environments.

SATIMO has also entered in partnership with EB (Elektrobit), a developer of cutting edge embedded technology solutions for wireless on MIMO Over-the-Air (OTA) testing. 

The partnership would combine the expertise of SATIMO and EB to offer a test solution that integrates the best performing technologies: multi-probe spherical measurement geometry, instantaneous calibration of the test system and high performance radio channel emulator.

“As the end-user performance requirements of new MIMO mobile devices constantly increase, it introduces new testing challenges for wireless device manufactures. We are glad to be able to provide a reliable and easy-to-use solution to the market together with our partner SATIMO” says Antti Sivula, senior vice president of EB’s Wireless Communications Tools Business.

EB launched industry’s first commercially available MIMO OTA emulator in February 2010. The EB Propsim F8 MIMO OTA emulator can produce signals in any geometry based channel model for a flexible number of probes. The emulator is integrated in SATIMO’s testing solution, together with a circular multi-probe arch, an instantaneous calibration unit, an amplification unit and a radio communication tester. This partnership provides a fully-operational MIMO OTA testing solution for the Telecom industry.

“The demand for such a solution has been growing strongly in the last few months. We are proud to offer thanks to this partnership a solution that perfectly fits the needs of wireless device manufacturers in terms of speed, performance and flexibility” tells Gianni Barone, sales director of SATIMO.