A Wideband Collocated Antennas With Five Reconfigurable Patterns and Low Mutual Coupling

Abstract

Abstract-Wideband collocated antennas for multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems are proposed. The structure is disposed on two substrate layers. On the first top substrate, a disc monopole is etched. The top of the second substrate contains a tapered slot antenna in a form of a Vivaldi antenna and two reflector elements in the form of half disc. The designed antenna can switch among five radiation patterns which radiate in different directions of space with only two excitation ports. All antennas have a relative bandwidth at least 23%. The antenna elements exhibit a low mutual coupling since they are around −17 dB over the considered bandwidths. This performance is believed because the disc monopole mainly has a broadside radiation while the Vivaldi antenna radiates in end-fire directions. With an overall length of about a half guided wavelength, the proposed structure is believed suitable for applications needing radiation pattern diversity.