QUESTION

Question

What's the certification/approval process like for cellular devices in the US?

Answer 1

Both cellular carriers and the PTCRB will need to certify a device before it's launched in the US. These tests are pretty demanding, moreso than in other markets, due to the sheer size of the country and lesser concentration of cell towers. This makes wireless design, particularly for MIMO solutions, a much more critical part of the process. Selecting the right antenna and following the best practices for designing that in, is incredibly important. The Over-the-Air tests measure radiated power (TRP) and isotropic sensitivity (TIS). LTE antennas also need to be decoupled to avoid failing envelope correlation coefficient tests.

Answer 2

From the radiated aspect, which is most applicable to Antenova, the US carriers primarily measure total radiated power (TRP) and total isotropic sensitivity (TIS).  Most carrier have their own minimum values that prospective device manufacturers are to meet.

Antenova does our best to work with our customer to provide antenna design guidance in order to meet the carrier minimum requirements by offering services such as antenna design review to optimize the location of our antennas, passive antenna efficiency measurements once our antennas are integrated into the device to determine the efficiency of the antenna along with the gain, and active carrier pre-certification testing of the TRP and TIS to ensure the system is ready to certify.