A compact 4 × 4 reconfigurable MIMO antenna design with adjustable suppression of certain frequency bands within the UWB frequency range

Abstract

This paper introduces a novel 4 × 4 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna design with a reconfigurable operating band within the Ultra-Wideband (UWB) range. The antenna consists of four rectangular radiating elements arranged symmetrically and orthogonally on a defected ground plane. The design incorporates switching elements that allow adjustable and reversible suppression of specific bands within the UWB range, enabling the antenna to operate in three different modes: UWB, X-band, and dual-band with sub-6GHz and X-band. Thus, a single UWB antenna can serve as three different antennas, suppressing certain frequencies as required. To mitigate mutual coupling between adjacent antenna elements, four thin stubs are strategically placed at the center of the ground plane, forming a square with open corners. When one of the antenna elements is excited, this structure acts as an insulator, ensuring that the surface current is confined solely to that element and not induced in others. Experimental verification of the proposed design was performed by fabricating and testing the antenna. The results indicated good agreement between simulation and measurement data for various parameters, including S-parameters, radiation patterns, gains, and MIMO parameters such as envelope correlation coefficients (ECC), diversity gain (DG), mean effective gain (MEG), and total active reflection coefficient (TARC).