Compact Quad-Port MIMO Antenna with Ultra-Wideband and High Isolation

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a compact and highly isolated four-port ultra-wideband MIMO antenna. The antenna elements achieve broadband characteristics by etching a metamaterial structure on the radiating patch and stepping the coplanar waveguide feed. The test results show that the unit antenna can operate from 1.8 GHz to 16.38 GHz with an absolute bandwidth of 14.58 GHz and a relative bandwidth of 160.4% with good radiation properties and gain. After that, a compact four-cell ultra-wideband MIMO antenna is designed by using polarization diversity technology with an overall size of 51.2 mm × 51.2 mm × 1.524 mm. The MIMO antenna can operate from 1 GHz to 17 GHz with an absolute bandwidth of 16 GHz and a relative bandwidth of 177.78%. To reduce the coupling between cells, four angled slits are etched on the common ground to improve the isolation of the MIMO antennas to 27.8 dB. The performance parameters of the proposed MIMO antennas are further validated through simulation analysis and measurements. Moreover, the diversity properties of MIMO antennas are analyzed in detail, demonstrating the applicability of the proposed antennas in UWB communication systems, which can also be used for satellite mobile communications and satellite fixed communication services.