Compact and Low-Coupled Tripolarized Microstrip MIMO Antenna Based on Parasitic Patch Loading

Abstract

A miniaturized and low-coupled tripolarized microstrip multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna working at 3.5 GHz is proposed. This antenna includes a main circular radiating patch, which is shorted to the ground plane by an outer layer of vias, and a parasitic patch inside the cavity, which is connected to the main patch by an inner layer of vias. Through the selection of suitable number of the outer layer vias and the loading of the parasitic patch, the resonant frequencies of modes TM <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">11</sub> and TM <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">02</sub> can be reduced, individually. The design procedure of this antenna is demonstrated and a transmission-line model for TM <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">02</sub> mode is presented, which can give a good explanation for the frequency reducing by the capacitance introduced by parasitic patch loading. This design can not only downsize the diameter of the unloaded antenna from 0.7λ <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</sub> to 0.485λ <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</sub> , with the same height of 0.035λ <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</sub> , but also can reduce the interport coupling from -13 to -18 dB. The measured and simulated S-parameters and radiation patterns are in good agreements. Fine MIMO performance of the proposed tripolarized antenna in terms of large capacity and low correlation coefficients has been verified by some propagation measurements in a real-world office.