A Novel High Gain Wideband MIMO Antenna for 5G Millimeter Wave Applications

Abstract

A compact tree shape planar quad element Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna bearing a wide bandwidth for 5G communication operating in the millimeter-wave spectrum is proposed. The radiating element of the proposed design contains four different arcs to achieve the wide bandwidth response. Each radiating element is backed by a 1.57 mm thicker Rogers-5880 substrate material, having a loss tangent and relative dielectric constant of 0.0009 and 2.2, respectively. The measured impedance bandwidth of the proposed quad element MIMO antenna system based on 10 dB criterion is from 23 GHz to 40 GHz with a port isolation of greater than 20 dB. The measured radiation patterns are presented at 28 GHz, 33 GHz and 38 GHz with a maximum total gain of 10.58, 8.87 and 11.45 dB, respectively. The high gain of the proposed antenna further helps to overcome the atmospheric attenuations faced by the higher frequencies. In addition, the measured total efficiency of the proposed MIMO antenna is observed above 70% for the millimeter wave frequencies. Furthermore, the MIMO key performance metrics such as Mean Effective Gain (MEG) and Envelope Correlation Coefficient (ECC) are analyzed and found to conform to the required standard of MEG < 3 dB and ECC < 0.5. A prototype of the proposed quad element MIMO antenna system is fabricated and measured. The experimental results validate the simulation design process conducted with Computer Simulation Technology (CST) software.