Analysis of Vehicle Body Impact on Antenna Pattern and Effective Antenna Aperture for Full Vehicle Antenna Testing

Measuring the performance of vehicle-mounted antennas has been a growing demand with the rapid evolution of vehicular wireless communication technologies. Because the antenna performance is impacted by its installation position and vehicle body, the large electrical size of the vehicle makes the testing of such a system challenging. One interesting question from the vehicle industry is the effective antenna aperture and acceptable test range, which can satisfy the full vehicle antenna test requirement. Following the two test range acceptance criteria proposed in the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) Technical Report, this paper analyzes the acceptable test range and its corresponding effective antenna aperture for full vehicle antenna testing based on Electromagnetic (EM) simulation of one kind of 4G communication antenna and measurement of one real car's Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) antenna in a full vehicle anechoic chamber.