Reduced mutual coupling of compact MIMO antenna designed for WLAN and WiMAX applications

This communication describes a simple compact wide band multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) applications. The proposed antenna is integrated with an electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structure which is used to reduce the mutual coupling between the ports. The structure is excited by a line feed mechanism and investigated experimentally. The antenna covers the frequency range from 2.01 to 3.92 GHz with the corresponding fractional bandwidth of 64.42%. It fulfills the bandwidth requirements of WLAN (2.35‐2.5 GHz) and WiMAX (3.2‐3.85 GHz) bands where minimum port isolation is obtained around 29 dB throughout the entire application band. The proposed MIMO antenna has very low envelope correlation co‐efficient (ECC < 0.01) and high diversity gain (DG > 9.8). It also has very low channel capacity loss (CCL) which is found to be less than 0.2 Bit/s/Hz. The simulation results are compared with the measurement outcomes and found a good agreement between them.     

Complementary meander‐line‐inspired dielectric resonator multiple‐input‐multiple‐output antenna for dual‐band applications

The communication presents a simple dielectric resonator (DR) multiple‐input‐multiple‐output (MIMO) dual‐band antenna. It utilizes two “I”‐shaped DR elements to construct an “I”‐shaped DR array antenna (IDRAA) for MIMO applications. The ground plane of the antenna is defected by two spiral complementary meander lines and two circular ground slots. In the configuration, two “I”‐shaped DR elements are placed with a separation of 0.098λ. The antenna covers dual‐band frequency spectra from 3.46 to 5.37 GHz (43.26%) and from 5.89 to 6.49 GHz (9.7%). It ensures the C‐band downlink (3.7‐4.2 GHz), uplink (5.925‐6.425 GHz), and WiMAX (5.15‐5.35 GHz) frequency bands. Each DR element is excited with a 50‐Ω microstrip line feed with aperture‐coupling mechanism. The antenna offers very high port isolation of around 18.5 and 20 dB in the lower band and upper band, respectively. The proposed structure is suitable to operate in the MIMO system because of its very nominal envelope correlation coefficient (<0.015) and high diversity gain (>9.8). The MIMO antenna provides very good mean effective gain value (±0.35 dB) and low channel capacity loss (<0.35 bit/s/Hz) throughout the entire operating bands. Simulated and measured results are in good agreement and they approve the suitability of the proposed IDRAA for C‐band uplink and downlink applications and WiMAX band applications.     

Investigation on decoupling of wide band wearable multiple‐input multiple‐output antenna elements using microstrip neutralization line

An investigation to enhance the decoupling between the elements of a compact wide band multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) antenna is presented in this communication. A microstrip neutralization line (NL) is designed on the top of antenna surface to enhance the port isolation. The geometry is embedded on a jeans material to be apposite for the on‐body wearable applications. The antenna covers the frequency spectra from 3.14 to 9.73 GHz (around 102.4%) and fulfills the bandwidth requirements of WiMAX (3.2‐3.8 GHz), WLAN (5.15‐5.35/5.72‐5.85 GHz), C band downlink‐uplink (3.7‐4.2/5.9‐6.425 GHz), downlink defense (7.2‐7.7 GHz), and ITU (8‐8.5 GHz) bands. The port isolation is found to be more than 32 dB over the whole application bands. The antenna is appraised in a rich scattering environment with very minimal envelope correlation coefficient (ECC < 0.12) and great amount of diversity gain (DG > 9.8). The proposed MIMO antenna system is able to achieve the channel capacity loss (CCL) of less than 0.2 BPS/Hz throughout the whole operating band. The proposed structure is etched on an area of 30 × 50 mm². The simulated and measured performances of the proposed antenna are in well‐matched state.     

Design of a dual‐band MIMO dielectric resonator antenna with high port isolation for WiMAX and WLAN applications

A novel dual‐band MIMO dielectric resonator antenna with high port isolation for WiMAX and WLAN applications is designed and investigated. The proposed antenna operates at 3.5 and 5.25 GHz bands. High port isolation is achieved using hybrid feeding mechanism that excites two orthogonal modes at each frequency bands. The measured impedance bandwidth of the proposed antenna covers the entire WiMAX (3.4–3.7) GHz and WLAN (5.15–5.35) GHz bands. The scalable behavior along with the frequency ratio of the antenna has also been investigated in this work. The measured isolation between antenna ports is ?52 dB at the lower band and ?46 dB at the upper band, respectively. Envelope correlation coefficient, diversity gain and mean effective gain have also been investigated. Moreover, measured results are in good agreement with the simulated ones.     

A triple‐band antenna for MIMO WLAN applications

A novel triple‐band antenna element by etching parasitic slot on ground plane is presented. A three‐element antenna system for WLAN MIMO communications is fabricated by using the proposed antenna element. The triple‐band antenna element is designed for the WLAN standard frequency ranges (2.4‐2.485, 5.15‐5.35, and 5.475‐5.725 GHz). The three identical antenna elements are rotationally symmetric on the substrate, isolated by using metal‐vias cavity. The measured average peak gain within the operational bandwidth is about 2.7 dBi. The isolation between the antenna elements can achieve better than 17 dB at the lower band (2.25‐2.65 GHz), while more than 32 dB at the higher bands (5.20‐5.35 and 5.47‐5.73 GHz) is obtained.     

Modified circular common element four‐port multiple‐input‐multiple‐output antenna using diagonal parasitic element

A four‐port multiple input multiple‐output (MIMO) antenna with common radiating element is proposed for 2.4 GHz Wi‐Fi applications. It comprises a modified circular radiator fed by four identical modified feedlines, partial ground planes, and a diagonal parasitic element (DPE). The parasitic element is used to enhance the interport isolation. The antenna has a 2:1 Voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) impedance band 2.34‐2.56 GHz and nearly omnidirectional radiation patterns. The radiation efficiency is more than 79% and gain is 2 dBi at resonant 2.43 GHz. The isolation in the given frequency band is 10 dB. At the 2.43 GHz, the isolation between adjacent ports (1, 2 and 1, 4) is 14 dB and between opposite ports (1, 3) is 12 dB. The mean effective gain (MEG) ≤ ?2.7 dB and envelope correlation coefficient is <0.01. The ?10 dB total active reflection coefficient bandwidth is 202 MHz. The antenna is designed for a Wi‐Fi device and the effectiveness of antenna has been checked for distance of ½ feet from the human head. The specific absorption rate (SAR) is found to be ≤0.17 W/Kg by CST simulation tool.     

A dual‐feed MIMO antenna pair with one shared radiator and two isolated ports for fifth generation mobile communication band

In this article, a pair of unsymmetrical dual‐feed antennas with one shared radiator and two isolated ports is proposed for multiple‐input‐multiple‐output (MIMO) systems. The proposed antenna pair achieves high isolation between the two ports by properly adjusting the distance between the two feeding ports and the position and length of shorting strips on the radiator. The antenna has simple structure and covers the 3.3‐3.7 GHz band, which could meet the demand of future 5G applications. The measured results show that antenna has good impedance matching (better than 10 dB return loss) and high port isolation (better than 20 dB isolation) from 3.35 to 3.65 GHz. The total efficiencies are above 55% and the envelope correlation coefficient is <0.1, which is sufficient for MIMO applications.     

High isolation two‐port compact MIMO fractal antenna with Wi‐Max and X‐band suppression characteristics

This article features about an ultra‐wideband (UWB)‐multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) antenna that exhibits the potentials of good port isolation and dual‐band suppression. The proposed antenna model consists of a unique fractal‐shaped radiating patch, a common ground interface leading to the incorporation of an intuitive approach; parasitic inverted neutralization stubs, which is located at the central co‐ordinate axis system, protruded vertically, where its extension is twisted with a motive of enhancing the port isolation. In addition to that, contiguous notches are implemented to achieve band‐notching at WiMAX (3.35‐4.45 GHz) and X‐band (9‐10 GHz). The total electrical area of UWB MIMO antenna is 0.179(λ₀)² at 2.25 GHz. To rationalize the counterparts of MIMO and band‐notching, diversity performance is studied through the electromagnetic (EM) solver and the corresponding circuit analysis is pursued through a electronic design automation (EDA) solver. The prototype has been fabricated, measured, and agreed well with the simulated results. The feasibility of proposed antenna model is considered to be quite optimum, with due consideration of its outcomes from applications point‐of‐view.     

Compact planar frequency reconfigurable multiple‐input‐multiple‐output antenna with pattern and polarization diversity characteristics for WiFi and WiMAX standards

A compact planar frequency reconfigurable dual‐band multiple‐input‐multiple‐output (MIMO) antenna with high isolation and pattern/polarization diversity characteristics is presented in this article for WiFi and WiMAX standards. The MIMO configuration incorporates two symmetrically placed identical antenna elements and covers overall size of 24 mm × 24 mm × 0.762 mm. Reconfiguration of each antenna element is achieved by using a PIN diode which allows antennas to switch from state‐1 (2.3‐2.4 GHz and 4.6‐5.5 GHz) to state‐2 (3.3‐3.5 GHz and 4.6‐5.5 GHz). In state‐1, the configuration offers isolation ≥18 dB and 20 dB in lower band (LB) and upper band (UB) respectively; whereas, in state‐2, isolation ≥21 dB and 20 dB in LB and UB respectively is achieved. The same decoupling circuit provides high isolation in dual‐band of two states, which makes overall size of the proposed design further compact. The antennas are characterized in terms of envelope correlation coefficient, radiation pattern, gain, and efficiency. From measured and simulated results, it is verified that the proposed frequency reconfigurable dual‐band multi‐standard MIMO antenna design shows desirable performance in both operating bands of each state and compact size of the design makes it suitable for small form factor devices used in future wireless communication systems.     

A compact UWB‐MIMO with dual grounded CRR for isolation improvement

In this article, a compact half‐hexagonal ultra‐wide band multiple‐input‐multiple‐output (MIMO) antenna is presented. The key feature of the antenna is its novel isolation improvement technique which includes grounded stub along with dual grounded circular ring resonator. The antenna contains two counter facing half‐hexagonal monopoles having hybrid isolation circuit. The antenna has a compact size of 20 × 34 mm², with operating frequency band of 3‐11 GHz where port isolation is better than 20 dB in most of the band. The MIMO performance is ensured by calculating envelop correlation coefficient and mean effective gain ratio for isotropic, indoor, and outdoor environment. The performance of the antenna with multilayer printed circuit board having large dual ground plane and device housing is also studied. Results show that the proposed MIMO antenna is a good candidate for handheld devices for wireless personal‐area networks application.     

Compact dual wide‐band four/eight elements MIMO antenna for WLAN applications

A compact four and eight elements multiple‐input‐multiple‐output (MIMO) antenna designed for WLAN applications is presented in this article. The antenna operates in IEEE 802.11b/g WLAN (2.4 GHz), IEEE 802.11 ac/n WLAN (5.2 and 5.8 GHz) and WiMAX (5.8 GHz) bands. The resonated mode of the antenna is achieved by two unequal Reverse‐L shaped, line‐shaped slots on top and parasitic element on the ground layer. The single antenna provides wide bandwidth of about 29% (2.3‐3.1 GHz) in lower and 22% (4.9‐6.1 GHz) in the upper band. The compactness of the single element antenna is found about 95% with respect to the patch and 61% in overall dimension. Thereafter an investigation is carried out to design two, four, and eight elements MIMO antennas. All of the multi‐element structures provide compact configuration and cover entire WLAN frequency ranges (2.4‐2.48 and 5.15‐5.85 GHz). The dimension of the proposed eight element MIMO antenna is 102 × 52 × 1.6 mm³. It covers the frequency (measured) from 2.4 to 3.1 GHz and 5 to 6.1 GHz. The diversity performance of the proposed MIMO antenna is also assessed in terms of the envelope correlation coefficient (ECC), diversity gain (DG), and total active reflection co‐efficient (TARC). The ECC is found <0.5 whereas the DG >9.0 is obtained for the desired bands.     

A low‐profile dual port UWB‐MIMO/diversity antenna with band rejection ability

A band notched ultra‐wideband (UWB) antenna is presented in this article as a good prospect for multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO)/diversity application. The proposed MIMO antenna is constituted of two modified rectangle‐shaped patch antenna elements. A stepped stub is extended from the modified ground plane as a decoupling element between the radiators to realize a good isolation level between them. A band rejection response is obtained by connecting an open resonant stub to each of the radiators. The simulated prototype is fabricated and tested for verification. Results reveal that the proposed prototype provides a 10 dB return loss bandwidth from 3.08 to 10.98 GHz with band notch characteristics from 4.98 to 5.96 GHz, and a good port isolation level (S₂₁ ≤ 20). Diversity performances are ensured in terms of total active reflection coefficient, envelope correlation coefficient (<0.013 except notch band), diversity gain (≈9.51 dB), mean effective gain ratio (≈1), and channel capacity loss (≤0.35 bps/HZ except notch band). It evidences that the presented band notched UWB antenna can be a good prospective for MIMO/diversity applications.     

Dual polarized triple band hybrid MIMO cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna for LTE2500/WLAN/WiMAX applications

In this communication, triple band hybrid multi‐input–multi‐output (MIMO) cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna (CDRA) with high isolation is examined. The proposed MIMO antenna includes two symmetric folded microstrip line feeding structures along with CDRA at two different ends of substrate. Two inverted L‐shaped strips on the ground plane are used to enhance the isolation (S₁₂ < ?15 dB) as well as to generates 2.7 GHz frequency band. Metallic strip on the ground plane act as an electromagnetic reflector and also enhance the isolation between two antennas (S₁₂ < ?20 dB). Archetype of proposed MIMO antenna design has been fabricated and tested to validate the simulated results. The proposed antenna operates at three different frequency bands 2.24–2.38 GHz, 2.5–3.26 GHz, and 4.88–7.0 GHz (S₁₁ < ?6 dB) with the fractional bandwidth 6.06%, 26.4%, and 35.7%, respectively. Folded microstrip lines generate path delay between the electric field lines and originate circular polarization characteristics in the frequency range 5.55–5.75 GHz with the fractional bandwidth of 3.55%. In order to satisfy the different performance requirement of MIMO antenna such as envelop correlation coefficient, mean effective gain, effective diversity gain, peak gain are also examined. The proposed antenna is found suitable for LTE2500, WLAN, and WiMAX applications. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2016.     

Modified ground with 50 Ω step fed WLAN notch 2 × 2 MIMO UWB antenna

In this research paper, an optimized 2 × 2 MIMO UWB antenna (antenna‐E) with half circled radiators as well as 50 Ω step fed has been introduced. The proposed UWB MIMO antenna has been evolved from recent peer published papers that provide WLAN notch (5.15‐5.85GHz), ultra wide band width (3.1‐10.6 GHz) and again a very good isolation (?20 dB) also maintained. In this paper the evolutions have been derived from antenna‐A to antenna‐E. The Ultra wide band is achieved by using step feed line, cutting a metal strip on a partial ground plane, a rectangular slot underneath the feed line of each radiator in antenna‐E. A high isolation (?20 dB) is obtained by introducing two inverted Г shaped stubs in the ground plane. Both antenna‐D and antenna‐E maintain high isolation (?20 dB). But antenna‐E performs better isolation compared to antenna‐D. The notch at WLAN band (5.15‐5.85GHz) is achieved by etching rectangular C‐shaped slot on the both the radiators. In antenna‐E two radiators are placed horizontally where as in antenna‐D two radiators placed orthogonally. It has been observed that the dimension of final outcome (antenna‐E) is reduced by 33% compared to antenna‐D without compromising the overall performance of the antenna.     

Design and packaging of ultra‐wideband multiple‐input‐multiple‐output/diversity antenna for wireless applications

In this article, a new compact eight‐element three‐dimensional (3D) design of ultra‐wideband (UWB) multiple‐input‐multiple‐output (MIMO) antenna is proposed. For realizing polarization diversity, four elements of the MIMO antenna are oriented horizontally and four elements are arranged vertically. In the horizontal arrangement, the antenna resonating elements are placed orthogonally to each other, which reduces interelement coupling and offers a consistent link with the wireless systems/devices. The proposed antenna shows a bandwidth (S₁₁ ≤ ?10 dB) of 17.99 GHz (2.83‐20.82 GHz) and isolation larger than 15 dB in the resonating band. The proposed MIMO/diversity antenna performance parameters such as envelope correlation coefficient, diversity gain, and total active reflection coefficient are evaluated and presented. Furthermore, the unit cell of the MIMO system is simulated for the packaged environment and it is observed that the antenna housing does not affect the antenna performance.     

A reduced size dual port MIMO DRA with high isolation for 4G applications

A dual‐port reduced size multiple input multiple output (MIMO) Dielectric Resonator Antenna (DRA) has been studied and proposed. The MIMO antenna consists of a Rectangular Dielectric Resonator antenna, which is fed by two symmetrical feed lines for orthogonal mode excitation. The proposed antenna is suitable for operation over various long term evolution (LTE) bands. A measured bandwidth of 264 MHz for |S₁₁| S‐parameters. Based on these results, it can be concluded that the proposed antenna can be a suitable candidate for MIMO applications. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:495–501, 2015.     

A‐shaped wideband dielectric resonator antenna for wireless communication systems and its MIMO implementation

In this article, a new A‐shaped dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) excited by a conformal strip is proposed for wideband applications. The wide bandwidth is achieved by combining two adjacent modes that is, TM₁₀₁ and TM₁₀₃. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed DRA offers an impedance bandwidth (for S11?10 dB) of 59.7% (3.24‐6.0 GHz), covering IEEE 802.11 and U‐NII bands. The antenna provides a fairly stable radiation pattern with the gain ranging from 5.29 to 7 dBi across the operating bandwidth. A dual‐element multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) system is also realized using the proposed wideband DRA. The impedance bandwidth of the dual‐element MIMO antenna is 59.2% and 60.9% for Port1 and Port2, respectively and the isolation between the ports is better than 20 dB across the bandwidth. For Port1, the gain of the MIMO antenna ranging from 6.03 to 7.45 dBi is obtained across the bandwidth. Furthermore, the diversity performance of the MIMO antenna is found to be good with envelope correlation coefficient below 0.003 over the operating band. The proposed antenna could be the potential candidate for worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), wireless local area network (WLAN) and lower European UWB frequency band (3.4‐5.0 GHz) applications.     

Gain enhancement and mutual coupling reduction of multiple‐intput multiple‐output antenna for millimeter‐wave applications using two types of novel metamaterial structures

A method to significantly increase the gain and reduce the mutual coupling of microstrip multiple‐intput multiple‐output (MIMO) antenna based on metamaterial concept is presented. The μ‐negative and ε‐negative features of the proposed modified peace‐logo planar metamaterial (MPLPM) and two‐sided MPLPM (TSMPLPM) structures are calculated. The antenna structure consists of eight MPLPM slabs and two TSMPLPM, which are embedded in azimuth plane of a MIMO antenna vertically. The dimensions of MIMO antenna are 28 × 16 × 6.3 mm³ at 40 GHz. As a result, a compact MIMO antenna is simulated in comparison with primary microstrip structures. The corresponding return‐loss of the antenna is better than 10 dB over 34.5 to 45.5 GHz for Ka‐band applications. Good consent between the measured and simulated result is tacked. The maximum simulated gain of the structure is 15.5 dB at 40 GHz, creating a maximum gain improvement of 11.5 dB in comparison with a MIMO antenna without any metamaterial combinations. The value of the insertion‐loss (isolation) is 33 dB, which has improved by more than 25 dB compared to the conventional sample.     

Compact eight‐port MIMO/diversity antenna with band rejection characteristics

A new compact three‐dimensional multiple‐input‐multiple‐output (MIMO) antenna comprised of eight antenna elements is presented. The unit cell of the proposed MIMO/diversity antenna consists of three elliptical rings connected together in the region close to the feed line and a rectangular‐shaped modified ground plane. To achieve polarization diversity with the proposed eight‐port MIMO configuration, four antenna elements are horizontally arranged and the remaining four are vertically oriented. The proposed antenna has an impedance bandwidth (S₁₁ < ?10 dB) of 25.68 GHz (3.1‐28.78 GHz) with a wireless local area network notch‐band at 5.8 GHz (5.2‐6.5 GHz). In addition to polarization diversity, the proposed antenna provides a reliable link with wireless devices. The prototype antenna design is fabricated and measured for diversity performance. Also, the proposed MIMO antenna provides good performance metrics such as apparent diversity gain, channel capacity loss, envelope correlation coefficient, isolation, mean effective gain, multiplexing efficiency, and total active reflection coefficient.     

Dual‐port MIMO dielectric resonator antenna for WLAN applications

A dual‐port multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) for 5 GHz IEEE (802.11a/h/j/n/ac/ax) is discussed in this article. Two prototypes of single feed DRA and dual feed MIMO DRA are fabricated and measured results are compared with the simulated data. The proposed single feed DRA and dual feed MIMO DRA exhibits wide impedance bandwidth (IBW). Antennas have been fabricated on Rogers RT Duroid substrate with Eccostock made DRA placed over the substrate. DRAs are excited by aperture coupled feed to achieve wide bandwidth and high efficiency. The measured IBW of uniport DRA and dual‐port MIMO DRA are 26.6% (4.75‐6.21 GHz) and 27.5% (4.7‐6.2 GHz) respectively. Maximum gain of the antenna is 7.4 dBi. The results of the antennas are in good agreement with simulated data and they are suitable for WLAN applications. These antennas are also compact with area of substrate 32.8 cm².