Dual-Band Dual-Polarized Compact Bowtie Antenna Array for Anti-Interference MIMO WLAN

Abstract

Smart antennas have received increasing interest for mitigating interference in the multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) wireless local area network (WLAN). In this paper, a dual-band dual-polarized compact bowtie dipole antenna array is proposed to support anti-interference MIMO WLAN applications. In the antenna array, there are 12 antennas, six for horizontal polarization and six for vertical polarization. In order to achieve dual linear polarizations and beam switching, six horizontal antennas are placed in a sequential, rotating arrangement on a horizontal substrate panel with an equal inclination angle of 60 ° to form a symmetrical structure, while the other six antennas for vertical polarization are inserted through slots made on the horizontal substrate panel. Furthermore, six pairs of meandered slits are introduced to reduce the mutual coupling between horizontal antennas in the lower band. A prototype of the array with a dimension of 150 × 150 × 60 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> is manufactured and exhibits the characteristics of high isolation, good front-to-back ratio, and average gains of 4.5 and 5 dBi over the 2.4- and 5-GHz band, respectively. The MIMO performance of the array is analyzed and evaluated by mutual coupling, the total active reflection coefficient (TARC) and the envelope correlation coefficient. The anti-interference capability of the array is also investigated by the experiment.