Compact body-worn MIMO antenna with high port isolation for UWB applications

This article investigates the mutual coupling reduction of a compact two elements wearable ultra-wideband (UWB) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna. The ground plane of the proposed wearable MIMO antenna structure consists of three connected square ring-shaped stubs and two rectangular slots of narrow height. These ground stubs and slots minimize the mutual coupling effect between antennas and provide high isolation. The suggested MIMO antenna functions from the 1.87 to 13.82 GHz frequency spectrum covering WLAN (2.4–2.484 GHz), UWB (3.1–10.6 GHz), and X band (8–12 GHz) with 152.32% fractional bandwidth. It sustains port isolation above 27 dB throughout the 2 to 13.82 GHz frequency band. Inside the whole working frequency band, the suggested antenna offers a tiny envelope correlation coefficient (ECC < 0.098), greater diversity gain (DG > 9.93 dB), minimum channel capacity loss (CCL < 0.32 bits/s/Hz), and slight magnitude variation in mean effective gain of antenna ports (< 0.1 dB). The recommended antenna yields a SAR level below the designated threshold (<1.6 W/kg), affirming its suitability for body-worn applications. The designed MIMO antenna structure has an overall volume of 32 × 48 × 1.5 mm³.