A Compact MIMO Antenna Design Using the Wideband Ground-Radiation Technique for 5G Terminals

Abstract

This paper introduces a 4 × 4 multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) antenna application based on the conception of the characteristic mode of 5G terminals. The proposed antenna used a series capacitor and a parallel capacitor to control input impedance matching, while the resonance frequency was controlled by employing a resonance loop capacitor. In this way, we achieved a compact miniaturization antenna that uses ground radiation for the target 5G New Radio (NR) operating bands with n48, n77, and n78 bands. The simulation and measurement data revealed that the –6 dB bandwidth of the proposed antenna was approximately 1,240 MHz (ranging from 3.14 GHz to 4.38 GHz), while the efficiency also improved from 38.7% (reference) to 49.1% (proposed) within the 3 GHz to 4.6 GHz range. Furthermore, the radiation pattern exhibited satisfactory radiation performance. Therefore, it was concluded that the proposed 4 × 4 MIMO antenna set technology has promising prospects for application in 5G communication terminals in the future.