IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL.

15, 2016

1057

Compact MIMO Slot Antenna for UWB Applications

Gunjan Srivastava, Student Member, IEEE, and Akhilesh Mohan, Member, IEEE

AbstractA compact four-element multiple-inputmultiple-output (MIMO) antenna for portable wireless ultrawideband
(UWB) applications is presented in this letter. The proposed UWB
MIMO antenna has the compact size of
mm . The
microstrip-fed stepped-slot antenna acts as a single UWB antenna
element. The UWB antenna covers the wide frequency band from
3.1 to 12 GHz. High isolation (
dB) is achieved between the
UWB antenna elements without any decoupling network. It is due
to inherent directional radiation properties of slot antennas (SAs)
and their asymmetrical placements. The measured impedance
bandwidth of UWB MIMO antenna is from 3.2 to 12 GHz with the
isolation better than 22 dB over the entire UWB spectrum. The
envelope correlation coefcient (ECC) as well as channel capacity
loss (CCL) are investigated, and they are within their acceptable
limits.
Index TermsEnvelope correlation coefcient (ECC), multipleinputmultiple-output (MIMO), slot antenna (SA), ultrawideband
(UWB).

I. INTRODUCTION

ECENTLY, multiple-inputmultiple-output (MIMO)

technologies are widely used in ultrawideband (UWB)
systems to overcome the effects of multipath fading. Moreover, multiple antennas are employed to enhance the channel
capacity. Several two- and four-element UWB MIMO systems
are reported in the literature, in which different techniques are
used to obtain good isolation between the antenna elements.
One of the most popular techniques is to place the decoupling
network such as parasitic stubs [1] or slots [2] between the
antenna elements to obtain good isolation. These decoupling
networks provide good isolation inevitably at the cost of increased system size and complexity. Also, the technique of
orthogonal placement of antenna feeds/elements provides good
isolation among the antenna elements [3][7]. However, it
will result in a dual-polarized system or polarization diversity.
However, the true challenge will be the placement of the
antenna elements in the same polarization and to obtain high
isolation without any decoupling structures while maintaining
compact dimensions. A number of single-polarized UWB
antenna elements are used in MIMO systems [2], [8], [9]. In
[9], four-element quasi-self-complementary antennas (QSCA)
with similar polarization are used in UWB MIMO systems.
This asymmetrical QSCA structure is used to obtain low
mutual coupling. However, the size of the QCSA MIMO

Fig. 1. (a) Geometry of the proposed UWB MIMO antenna. (b) Top and bottom
views of fabricated prototype.

antenna is
mm , which is quite large for portable UWB
applications.
In this letter, a very compact four-element UWB MIMO anmm size is presented. All the antenna elements
tenna of
in the MIMO conguration have the similar polarization. High
isolation is obtained without any decoupling network, and it is
due to asymmetrical placement of antenna elements and the directional radiation properties of slot antennas (SAs). The wide
impedance bandwidth of UWB antenna is obtained by exciting
a stepped slot with a 50- microstrip line. The stepped slot reduces the size of antenna signicantly. Moreover, the diversity
performance of the UWB MIMO antenna is studied in terms
of envelope correlation coefcient (ECC) and channel capacity
loss (CCL). The proposed UWB MIMO antenna can be used
for wireless personal area network (WPAN), wireless body area
network (WBAN), and other applications that operate in UWB
spectrum specied by the FCC, wherever there is a problem of
multipath fading.
II. ANTENNA CONFIGURATION

Manuscript received September 15, 2015; accepted October 08, 2015. Date
of publication October 16, 2015; date of current version March 30, 2016.
G. Srivastava is with the Electronics Department, Indian School of Mines,
Dhanbad 826004, India (e-mail: gunjansri21@gmail.com).
A. Mohan is with the Department of Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302,
India (e-mail: am@ece.iitkgp.ernet.in).
Color versions of one or more of the gures in this letter are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identier 10.1109/LAWP.2015.2491968

Fig. 1(a) shows the proposed compact four-element UWB

MIMO antenna. The proposed antenna is fabricated on lowcost FR4 substrate having dielectric constant of 4.4, thickness
1.6 mm, and loss tangent 0.02 as shown in Fig. 1(b).
A. UWB Slot Antenna (SA)
Each element of the MIMO antenna is realized by creating
stepped slots at different resonance frequencies of the UWB

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1058

Fig. 2. (a) Stepped slot antenna (SA) and its (b) -parameter.

spectrum. The UWB antenna consists of a stepped slot that is

fed by a 50- stepped microstrip line to obtain wide impedance
bandwidth. These stepped slots help in the smooth transition
from one resonant mode to another. In order to match these
resonances, the microstrip line width is reduced at transition of
feedline and the slot. Here, each slot behaves like a resonating
element, and its resonant frequency is mainly governed by the
length of the slot. The lengths of these slots are basically a
quarter-wavelength long, corresponding to their resonant frequencies. The stepped-slot antenna has several advantages such
as wide impedance bandwidth, compact dimensions, and good
directional radiation property [10].
The simulated
of a single UWB SA is shown in Fig. 2. It
has the wide impedance bandwidth from 3.1 to 11 GHz, which
covers the entire UWB spectrum. The designed parameters of a
single UWB SA are as follows:
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm.
B. Four-Element UWB MIMO Antenna
UWB slot antennas are placed in such a manner that the feedline of all the antennas are on the one side of the substrate and the
ground plane on the other side. Fig. 1(a) shows the conguration
of the proposed UWB MIMO antenna. The UWB antennas are
designated as Ant_1, Ant_2, Ant_3, and Ant_4. These elements
are excited by the ports, which are designated as Ports 14. The
simulated -parameters of the proposed UWB MIMO antenna
is shown in Fig. 3. All the UWB antennas have impedance bandwidth from 3.1 to 12 GHz. The isolation between the antenna
elements is better than 22 dB without any decoupling network.
The mutual coupling is mainly reduced with the complementary
radiation pattern and asymmetrical structures.
C. Isolation Mechanism Between Ant_1 and Ant_2
High isolation between slot antennas (Ant_1 and Ant_2) can
be easily achieved with the help of the directional radiation
properties of a slot antenna [8]. The isolation between Ant_1
and Ant_2 is mainly affected by the distance as shown in
Fig. 4. It is evident from Fig. 4, the increase in results in the
isolation improvement at the cost of overall size of the UWB
MIMO antenna. Here,
mm is chosen as an optimal
design parameter that not only satises the basic requirement of

IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 15, 2016

Fig. 3.

-parameters of four-element UWB MIMO antenna.

Fig. 4. Parametric variation of design parameter .

Fig. 5. 3-D radiation patterns at 6 GHz (a) when Ant_1 is excited and (b) when
Ant_2 is excited. All the other ports are terminated with 50- matched load.

isolation of 20 dB over the entire UWB spectrum [1], [11], but

it also provides enough spacing for SMA connectors.
The stepped slot acts as a radiator, and the asymmetrical
placement of antenna elements (Ant_1 and Ant_2) forces them
to radiate in the opposite direction with negligible interaction
between them. Three-dimensional (3-D) radiation patterns of
Ant_1 and Ant_2 at 6 GHz are shown in Fig. 5. The Ant_1
radiates along
-axis, whereas Ant_2 radiates along
-axis.
The locations where Ant_2 is having minimum electric eld
coincide with that of maximum electric eld of Ant_1. It results
in negligible overlap between their radiation patterns, which in
turn leads to low correlation.
D. Isolation Mechanism Between Ant_1 and Ant_4
The mutual coupling between Ant_1 and Ant_4 depends
upon the parameter , which is the distance between them. As

SRIVASTAVA AND MOHAN: COMPACT MIMO SLOT ANTENNA FOR UWB APPLICATIONS

1059

Fig. 6. Parametric variation of design parameter .

Fig. 7. Surface current distributions at 5 GHz for different values of . (a)

mm. (b)
mm.

Fig. 8. Simulated and measured

. (b)
,
, and
tenna. (a)

-parameters of proposed UWB MIMO an.

the value of increases from 5 to 7 mm, in steps of 1 mm, the

isolation between them improves from 17 to 22 dB as depicted
in Fig. 6. The surface current distributions for
mm and
mm are shown in Fig. 7. It is clear from the gure that
there is a negligible amount of surface current present at Ant_4
if Ant_1 is excited for
mm. In contrast, when
mm,
there is a considerable amount of surface current present at
Ant_4. When Ant_1 is excited, other ports are terminated with
50- matched loads.
The optimized parameters of the proposed UWB MIMO antenna are as follows:
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm,
mm.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The designed four-element UWB MIMO antenna is fabricated and measured in order to validate the present approach [Fig. 1(b)]. The measurement is performed on Agilent
E5071C VNA. Since all the antenna elements are identical,
-parameters of only one antenna are presented in this letter.
The simulated and measured -parameters of the proposed antenna are shown in Fig. 8. The measured impedance bandwidth
is from 3.2 to 12 GHz, and the mutual couplings between the
antenna elements (
) are less than 22 dB. Measured
results are in good match with the simulated ones. However,
there are some disagreements that can be attributed to SMA
connectors and measuring environment, which are not taken
into account in simulations. The measured radiation pattern

Fig. 9. Measured radiation patterns when Port 1 is excited. (a)

-plane.
(b) -plane. (c) -plane. All other ports are terminated with 50- matched
load.

in
-, -, and
-planes at two resonance frequencies 3.5
and 6.5 GHz of Ant_1 are presented in Fig. 9. Due to identical
behavior of the individual antennas, the radiation pattern of
only Ant_1 is presented in this letter. During the measurement
of radiation pattern of Ant_1, other ports are terminated with
50- matched loads. The radiation patterns are quasi-omnidirectional in - and -planes. Due to the directional radiation
property of slot antenna, the radiation is weak in
-axis in
-plane.

1060

IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 15, 2016

TABLE I
COMPARISON OF FOUR-ELEMENT UWB MIMO ANTENNAS

smallest dimensions among all the reported four-element UWB

MIMO antennas.
Fig. 10. Measured peak gain and radiation efciency of proposed UWB MIMO
antenna.

IV. CONCLUSION
A compact four element UWB MIMO antenna with high isolation is presented in this letter. Each element of the compact
UWB MIMO antenna is realized by using stepped slots that
are fed by microstrip line. The size of the proposed antenna
is
mm . High isolation (
dB)
between antenna elements is obtained by the directional radiation properties of the individual antennas. The ECC
and CCL
bits/Hz/s are within their acceptable limits,
which ensures the good MIMO performance of the proposed
MIMO antenna. The simulated and measured results are in good
agreement, which shows its potential use for portable UWB
applications.
REFERENCES

Fig. 11. Measured ECC and CCL of the proposed UWB MIMO antenna.

Fig. 10 shows the simulated and measured peak gain and the
simulated radiation efciency of the proposed UWB MIMO antenna. The measured peak gain of the UWB MIMO antenna is
nearly constant and is around 4 dBi (Fig. 10). It is also observed
from Fig. 10 that the UWB MIMO antenna has high radiation
efciency, greater than 80%.
The behavior of MIMO antenna can be analyzed in terms of
two important parameters: ECC and CCL. The acceptable limits
of these two parameters are [4], [11]:
and
bits/Hz/s. The ECC can be obtained from the -parameters
and radiation efciency of UWB MIMO antenna [12]

(1)
where
is the radiation efciency of the th antenna
element.
The measured ECC and CCL are shown in Fig. 11. The measured ECC is less than 0.01 for the entire UWB band, which is
well below the acceptable limit, whereas the measured channel
capacity loss
bits/Hz/s for entire UWB spectrum. These two parameters guarantee the good MIMO performance of the proposed UWB MIMO antenna. Table I lists the
comparison of the proposed antenna to other existing four-element UWB MIMO antennas in the literature. From Table I, it is
found that the proposed UWB MIMO antenna not only has good
impedance bandwidth with quite high isolation, but also has the

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