A Modified SWB Hexagonal Fractal Spatial Diversity Antenna With High Isolation Using Meander Line Approach

Abstract

This manuscript introduces a novel miniaturized super wideband (SWB) hexagonal fractal spatial diversity 2-element multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna for broadband applications, as a compact wideband antenna is required for military radio and space communication devices. The designed antenna includes two hexagonal ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1^{st}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> modified Koch iteration) Koch fractal radiators with two linear tapered feedlines (TLTF) and a step tapered slotted ground plane (STSGP) that provides the broad impedance characteristic with miniaturized size in the operating band of 1.78-30 GHz. Moreover, the STSGP is also accountable for enabling the isolation ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$S_{12/21}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ) better than 10 dB. To further meet the isolation higher than 22 dB, a meander line is protruded from the ground plane while maintaining a 6 mm edge-to-edge distance between two antenna elements. Typically, the MIMO antenna with high isolation is beneficial for high-speed data transmission. The experimental outcomes represent that the proposed MIMO antenna is with the advantages of reasonably good diversity gain (nearly 10 dB), stable radiation patterns, high peak gain (almost 6.6 dBi), and moderate radiation efficiency (around 85%) across -10 dB impedance bandwidth. The total active reflection coefficient (TARC) and envelop correlation coefficient (ECC) are less than −25 dB and 0.1 respectively. Due to all these attributes, the proposed 2-element MIMO antenna array can be a potential candidate for military radio, spectrum sensing for cognitive radio, and space communication applications.