Design of an interlocked four-port MIMO antenna for UWB automotive communications

Abstract

The design, analysis, fabrication, and testing of a four-port multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna is reported in this paper for automotive communications. The MIMO antenna is constructed using the basic antenna element exploiting a slot geometry. Two such antennas are developed on the same microwave laminate to develop a two-port MIMO antenna. Two such microwave laminates are interlocked to create the four-port MIMO scheme. The most distinct feature of the proposed architecture is that the inter-port isolation is well-taken care without the need for an external decoupling unit. The four-port MIMO antenna has an overall volume of 32 × 15 × 32 mm3. The prototype MIMO antenna is fabricated and the measurements are carried out to validate the simulation results. The antenna offers ultra-wideband (UWB) characteristics covering the frequency range of 2.8–9.5 GHz. The average boresight gain of the antenna ranges from 3.2 to 5.41 dBi with the peak gain at 8 GHz. The simulated efficiency of the antenna is greater than 73% within the operating bandwidth. The MIMO parameters such as envelope correlation coefficient, diversity gain, and mean effective gain are evaluated and presented. The appropriateness of the proposed antenna for deployment in the shark fin housing of the present-day automobiles is verified using on-car performance estimation.

A dual band CPW-fed MIMO antenna for fifth generation application

“…This results in a compressed antenna size for a fourantenna unit. In another study [9], two gap-coupled loop antennas, which are mirror images of each other and function in the frequency range of 5G mid-band, are integrated to create a unique self-decoupled module. Through innovative methods [10], Utilizing grounded strips and distributed coupling capacitances for closely spaced loop antennas.…”

Compact Self-Isolated Four-Element MIMO Antenna for WLAN and ISM Bands Application

“…The references mentioned above often follow two types of design. These antennas either have a planar structure like references [14] and [18][19][20], or they support a 3D configuration like references [15][16][17] and [21][22][23][24]. Planar antennas usually have lower gain and isolation and can often show good gain and performance at higher frequencies.…”

A novel MIMO antenna with switchable UWB/5G modes for vehicular terminals

“…A dual‐narrow band antenna to cover the n78 and n79 bands of 5G New Radio is reported in Chang et al 3 A monopole and dipole combined antenna with a dual‐mode feeding structure is presented in Liu et al 1 for MIMO communications. The researchers in Saravanan et al 4 presented an interlocked four‐element MIMO antenna operating from 2.8 to 9.5 GHz for broadband vehicular MIMO technology. A coplanar waveguide‐based ultrawideband (UWB) antenna with switchable filtering functions for WiMAX, and WLAN has been described in Medkour et al 5 Planar Inverted F antenna‐based MIMO antenna that can switch between 4G and 2G frequencies are described in Chen et al 6 Meandered radiating arms are used to construct a frequency switchable MIMO antenna for LTE and early 5G communications, as detailed in Pant et al 7 The antenna in Pant et al 7 offers 29% and 50% fractional bandwidth in the reconfigured states.…”