Large Anechoic Chamber - To achieve autonomous driving and connected cars in the 5G world

Panasonic Corporation has announced that it has built one of Japan’s largest anechoic chambers in Yokohama City, Kanagawa Pref., Japan, to evaluate the communication performance of a whole vehicle through omni-direction while autonomous and connected cars are expected to rapidly become equipped with 5G equipment.

Radio equipment and antennas for 5G communication, which achieves broadband communication by using multiple antennas （MIMO*1, beamforming*2）, may not provide their actual or discrete performance when they are incorporated into vehicles owing to the reflection of radio waves on the body and electromagnetic noise from other electronic devices. In this anechoic chamber, the communication performance of a whole vehicle can be efficiently evaluated.

*1）MIMO, an abbreviation for Multiple Input Multiple Output, is a technique that increases transfer rate by sending／receiving signals using multiple antennas.
*2）Beamforming is a technique that improves communication quality by focusing signals in a specific direction.