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.     

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.     

Dielectric resonator based two‐port dual band antenna for MIMO applications

This article investigates a dual band multiple input multiple output (MIMO) cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna (cDRA) for WLAN and WiMAX applications. It consists of two symmetrical orthogonally placed radiators. Each radiator is excited through a narrow rectangular aperture with the help of a microstrip line. For higher mode excitation, the proposed structure uses dual segment DRA which apparently looks like stacked geometry. The aperture fed dielectric resonator works as a feed for upper cDRA to generate higher order mode. The presented radiator covers the band between 3.3‐3.8 GHz and 5‐5.7 GHz. The measured isolation is better than 20 dB in the desired band. The average gain and radiation efficiency achieved for the proposed antenna is 6.0 dBi and 85%, respectively at the operating frequency band. In the proposed geometry, broadside radiation patterns are achieved by exciting HEM_11δ and HEM_12δ modes in a stacked geometry. Different MIMO performance parameters (ECC, DG, MEG, and CCL) are also estimated and analyzed. The prototype of proposed antenna is fabricated and tested. The measured outcomes are in good accord with the simulated one.     

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.     

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.     

Millimeter‐wave antenna with wide‐scan angle radiation characteristics for MIMO applications

A three‐element quasi Yagi‐Uda antenna array with printed metamaterial surface generated from the array of uniplanar capacitively loaded loop (CLL) unit‐cells printed on the substrate operating in the band 25‐30 GHz is proposed. The metamaterial surface is configured to provide a high‐refractive index to tilt the electromagnetic (EM) beam from the two dipole antennas placed opposite to each other. The metamaterial region focuses the rays from the dipole antenna and hence increases the gain of the individual antennas by about 5 dBi. The antenna elements are printed on a 10 mil substrate with a center to center separation of about 0.5 λ ₀ at 28 GHz. The three‐element antenna covers 25‐30 GHz band with measured return loss of 10 dB and isolation greater than 15 dB between all the three ports. The measured gain of about 11 dBi is achieved for all the antenna elements. The three antenna elements radiate in three different directions and cover a radiation scan angle of 64°.     

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.     

A compact wide band textile MIMO antenna with very low mutual coupling for wearable applications

This communication presents a compact wide band wearable MIMO antenna with very low mutual coupling (VLMC). The proposed antenna is composed of Jeans material. Two “I” shaped stubs are connected in series and are employed on the ground plane between the two patches separated by 0.048 λ to increase isolation characteristics of the antenna‐port. The antenna covers frequency spectrum from 1.83 GHz to 8 GHz (about 125.5%) where the minimum port isolation of about 22 dB at 2.4 GHz and maximum of about 53 dB at 5.92 GHz are obtained. The envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) of the MIMO antenna is obtained to be less than 0.01 with a higher diversity gain (DG > 9.6) throughout the whole operating band. The proposed MIMO antenna is cost effective and works over a wide frequency band of WLAN (2.4‐2.484 GHz/5.15‐5.35 GHz/5.72‐5.825 GHz), WiMAX (3.2‐3.85 GHz) and C‐band downlink‐uplink (3.7‐4.2 GHz/5.925‐6.425 GHz) applications. Simulation results are in well agreement with the measurement results.     

Dielectric resonator array antenna for triple band WLAN applications with enhanced gain

An H‐shaped dielectric resonator array antenna is presented for wideband applications. The proposed antenna is excited by slot feed mechanism and investigated experimentally. The antenna covers the frequency ranges from 1.41 to 2.59 GHz, and 4.73 to 6.06 GHz with the corresponding impedance bandwidth of 59% and 24.65%, respectively. The simulation results fulfill the bandwidth requirements of IEEE 802.11a/b/g (2.4‐2.484 GHz/5.15‐5.35 GHz/5.725‐5.825 GHz) for Wireless local area network (WLAN) applications. The proposed antenna has simple structure, easy to fabricate and its measured radiation pattern shows a reliable performance in the desired operating bands.     

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.     

A planar triple band four element antenna system with polarization and pattern diversity for LTE/WLAN/DSRC applications

This paper presents a low profile, triple band antenna system for LTE/WLAN/DSRC applications. It consists of four coplanar waveguide (CPW) fed printed inverted F antennas (PIFAs), each loaded with folded slot antenna (FSA) and folded resonator (FR). The loading of FSA and FR is responsible for the triple band property. An independent/semi‐independent control of each band is observed. Each radiating element is aligned perpendicularly to its adjacent element to employ polarization and pattern diversity. This helps in sustaining a good isolation level in between them without using any additional decoupling networks. The antenna has been fabricated and measured to validate the simulated results. Measurement reveals three 10 dB return loss bandwidths in the ranges 2.47‐2.62 GHz, 3.39‐3.64 GHz, and 5.74‐6.25 GHz, respectively. The isolation levels between the radiators are more than 20 dB at all three operating bands. Respective peak gains are 3.8 dB, 4.5 dB, and 5.3 dB. To gratify the requirement of the diversity performance, some essential attributes like Total Active Reflection Coefficient (TARC), Envelope Correlation Coefficient (ECC), Diversity Gain (DG), Mean Effective Gain (MEG), and Channel Capacity Loss (CCL) are also evaluated.     

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.     

Compact hybrid Sierpinski Koch fractal UWB MIMO antenna with pattern diversity

In this article, a compact 2 element UWB MIMO antenna is proposed. It has a compact size of 40 mm × 20 mm (800 mm²). The antenna utilizes hybrid Sierpinski Koch fractal shape as the radiating element. The antenna elements are placed parallel and close to each other. The isolation between the antenna elements is increased by employing a modified stepped ground plane and a reflecting ground stub. The use of stub results in pattern diversity. A U‐ Shaped slot is etched in the radiating element to notch the WLAN band that interferes with UWB. The antenna performance is measured in terms of S‐parameter, radiation pattern and diversity performance. Considering S₁₁ < ?10 dB, the antenna offers an acceptable impedance bandwidth from 2.5 to 11 GHz, with an isolation better than 20 dB over the UWB range. It has a stable omnidirectional pattern. In terms of diversity performance, the antenna has an envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) of <0.1 and capacity loss of <0.1 bps/Hz. The channel capacity of the antenna in the outdoor environment is obtained using Wireless Insite. The channel capacity is found to be 2 Gb/s. The proposed antenna thus can be a good candidate for portable UWB application.     

A frequency reconfigurable MIMO antenna with agile feedline for cognitive radio applications

A novel frequency agile multiple‐input‐multiple‐output (MIMO) patch antenna based on a reconfigurable feedline is proposed. The proposed antenna structure has two hexagonal‐shaped patch antenna elements. A defected ground structure having hexagonal shape is included in the ground plane to make the design compact and improve isolation among antenna elements. Further compactness is achieved using reactive loading. Frequency reconfigurability is realized by employing varactor diodes in the microstrip feedline. The proposed antenna achieves a frequency reconfigurable band with wide tuning range from 1.42 to 2.27 GHz with good gain and efficiency. Furthermore, an envelope correlation coefficient value of less than 0.2 and minimum isolation of 12 dB was achieved, displaying good MIMO performance. The presented antenna has a planar, low profile design with compact size of 100 × 50 mm². Thus, frequency agility, wide range tuning, compactness, and planar structure of the proposed antenna design make it suitable for modern wireless handheld devices particularly in cognitive radio applications.     

Dual band frequency tunable planar inverted‐F antenna for mobile handheld devices

A single feed, dual‐band frequency tunable planar inverted‐F antenna (PIFA) is presented for mobile handheld device applications. The proposed antenna is designed using the transmission line model. The dual‐band frequency tunability is achieved by varying the capacitance of the varactor diode between 4.15 pF (0 V) and 0.72 pF (15 V). The measured impedance bandwidth of ?6 dB is realized from 0.8 to 0.98 GHz for the lower band and 1.65 to 2.2 GHz for the higher band. The designed antenna provides the independent frequency tunability for both the bands without disturbing each other. The maximum antenna gain is estimated 2.64 dBi for the proposed PIFA. Also, it has a maximum efficiency of ~85% for the mobile handheld device. In addition, the proposed PIFA is investigated with SAM phantom model for head and hand, found to be within the acceptable SAR limit of 1.6 W/Kg.     

Dual‐band circularly polarized MIMO DRA for sub‐6 GHz applications

In this article, a dual‐band circularly polarized multiple‐input‐multiple‐output (MIMO) dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) is proposed for 3.5 and 5.5 GHz bands, both being located under 6 GHz. Known as sub‐6 (or as mid‐band), they provide good coverage and capacity in the newly targeted fifth‐generation (5G) systems. The proposed structure consists of two ring DRAs (RDRAs) etched on a 0.8 mm thick RT Duroid substrate. Measured impedance bandwidths in broadside direction are 3.1‐3.75 GHz (19%) and 5.3‐5.6 GHz (9.4%) and circular polarization (CP) bandwidths are 3.425‐3.6 GHz (5%) and 5.45‐5.55 GHz (2%), respectively. CP is achieved by exciting HE modes using two probes placed orthogonaly to each other, that is, at an azimuthal angular distance of 90^° . Varying the lengths of the probe allows achieving the necessary time‐phase quadrature between modes. Comparison between recent multiband circularly polarized MIMO DRAs and proposed prototype has revealed that CP bandwidth in both bands is one of the highlighting advantages of the present configuration.     

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.     

Compact frequency reconfigurable triple band notched monopole antenna for ultrawideband applications

A compact ultra‐wideband (UWB) reconfigurable microstrip fed monopole antenna having size of 0.22 λ₀ × 0.28 λ₀ × 0.005 λ₀ with switchable frequency bands is presented. Triple band notched characteristics are achieved by inserting two stubs at top of radiator and one slot in between the radiator and microstrip feed line. Proposed antenna achieves reconfigurability with three PIN diodes at strategic positions to obtain eight different operational modes. In one of the operational modes, antenna operates in the entire UWB (3‐14 GHz) with fractional bandwidth of 127.5%. Two stubs are used to notch two frequency bands worldwide interoperability for microwave access (3.3‐3.6 GHz/WiMAX) and C‐band (3.7‐4.2 GHz). T‐shaped slot is also inserted to notch wireless local area network (5.725‐5.825 GHz/WLAN) frequency band. Proper biasing of PIN diodes is done by using suitable chip inductors and capacitors. Proposed antenna exhibits stable radiation patterns with average gain of around 3 dBi. Simulation and measurement results are in good agreement. Proposed antenna is suitable for on‐demand band rejection of parasitic bands coexisting in UWB.     

一种易调谐的小型GPS微带天线设计

提出了一款新颖的易调谐小型GPS微带天线结构。采用正方形贴片作为辐射单元,通过切角微扰实现右旋圆极化辐射;在贴片中心开槽和四周开缝,利用贴片曲流技术减小天线的尺寸;使用同轴中心馈电加载微带匹配段,实现阻抗的匹配。文章给出了天线的设计思路,并进行了大量的电磁仿真优化,最终对天线进行了加工实验。实验结果表明,在设计的频带内,天线具有较好的阻抗匹配和圆极化辐射特性。该天线具有结构紧凑、易于调谐的特点,具有良好的应用前景。     

A penta‐band hybrid fractal MIMO antenna for ISM applications

A miniature two‐element MIMO multiband planar patch antenna with potential applications in the ISM bands is presented. The elements of the antenna have been designed using a novel hybrid fractal geometry based on an altered Dragon Curve and the Inverted Koch. Reduced antenna dimensions are obtained with acceptable performance even at lower frequency ranges. The antenna elements are placed adjacent to each other with a very small spacing of 0.004 λ₀ (λ being the free space wavelength of 433 MHz), confining the antenna dimensions to 51 × 50 mm². The antenna resonates at the 433 MHz (ISM), 2.4 GHz (ISM), 3.9 GHZ (Fixed Satellite), 4.7 GHz (UWB) and 5.8 GHz (ISM) frequency bands. The antenna exhibits |S₁₁| ≤ ?10 dB, |S₂₁| ≤ ?16 dB, an ECC ≤ 0.01 for all operating frequencies, with circular polarisation at the 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz bands and linear polarisation at the others. The simulated structure was fabricated and tested, with the simulated and measured results displaying acceptable agreement.