D-Band Channel Measurements in a Medical Environment

Abstract The D-band, providing large available bandwidth in the range from 110 to 170 GHz, can potentially enable wireless communication systems satisfying the ever-growing demand for high data rates, as well as high-resolution sensing applications. The radio channel significantly influences the performance of such systems and must therefore be properly accounted for, making measurement campaigns indispensable for obtaining direct insight into target environments, deriving appropriate channel models, and validating simulation environments. In this work, an extension to an existing channel sounder is presented that enables measurements around 155 GHz, along with the first measurement campaign conducted with this extension in a medical environment, representing a potential use-case environment. Based on the azimuth-sampled double-directional measurements, the environment is analyzed at the path level, statistical channel parameters are derived, and the results reveal multipath-rich propagation conditions. The obtained insights support the development and evaluation of future high-data-rate communication and high-resolution sensing systems.