Case Study: Nokia Bell Labs achieves first-pass W‑band phased‑array system success with Keysight PathWave and test solutions

Nokia Bell Labs Leverages End-to-End Keysight Ecosystem to Develop W-Band Phased-Array System with First-Pass Success

Nokia Bell Labs set out to develop a highly integrated W‑band (75–110 GHz) phased‑array system — a 384‑element (256 Tx / 128 Rx) tiled RFIC/PCB radio head — and faced the challenge of fast, accurate chip‑, board‑ and system‑level simulation plus difficult S‑parameter, phased‑shifter/PLL, Tx over‑the‑air EVM and loopback measurements at mmWave frequencies. To meet these needs they worked with Keysight, leveraging its PathWave design suite (PathWave ADS, GoldenGate/PathWave RFIC Design, EMPro, SIPro and PIPro) and Keysight test instruments (spectrum analyzers, a W‑band smart mixer, AWG, VSA software and oscilloscope) for simulation and measurement.

Keysight provided an end‑to‑end workflow that combined high‑fidelity EM and system simulations with automated test and measurement, enabling Nokia Bell Labs to achieve first‑pass design success and close correlation between simulation and measured data from die to enclosure. Using PathWave tools for FEM, SI/PI and system‑level simulations plus Keysight instruments and scripting for socket‑based tests, the team cut phase‑noise setup from hours to under a minute and verified the full tile in minutes, demonstrating significant time savings and reliable, production‑ready results with Keysight.

Nokia Bell Labs

Michael Holyoak

Member of Technical Staff, mmWave ASIC Research Group