Common elements wideband MIMO antenna system for WiFi/LTE access-point applications

Abstract

A wideband multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna system with common elements suitable for WiFi/2.4 GHz and Long Term Evolution (LTE)/2.6 GHz wireless access point (WAP) applications is presented. The proposed MIMO antenna system consists of four wideband microstrip feedline printed monopole antennas with common radiating element and a ring-shaped ground plane. The radiator of the MIMO antenna system is designed as the shape of a modified rectangle with a four-stepped line at the corners to enhance the impedance bandwidth. According to the common elements structure of the MIMO antenna system, isolation between the antennas (ports) can be challenging. Therefore, the ground plane is modified by introducing four slots in each corner to reduce the mutual coupling. For an antenna efficiency of more than 60%, the measured impedance bandwidth for reflection coefficients below -10 dB was observed to be 1100 MHz from 1.8 to 2.9 GHz. Measured isolation is achieved greater than 15 dB by using a modified ground plane. Also, a low envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) less than 0.1 and polarization diversity gain of about 10 dB with the orthogonal mode of linear polarization and quasi-omnidirectional pattern during the analysis of radiation characteristic are achieved. Therefore, the proposed design is a good candidate for indoor WiFi and LTE WAP applications due to the obtained results.