Generating multiple characteristic modes below 1GHz in small terminals for MIMO antenna design

Abstract

Designing multiple antennas in small terminals at frequency bands below 1 GHz is challenging due to severe mutual coupling among antenna elements. The severe coupling is often the result of simultaneous excitation of the fundamental characteristic mode of the terminal chassis by more than one antenna element. In this work, we propose to solve the coupling problem by manipulating the chassis structure to allow more than one characteristic mode to resonate at frequencies below 1 GHz. To demonstrate our design concept and its practicality, we show the opportunistic use of the metallic bezel popular in smartphone design for obtaining two characteristic modes that can be efficiently excited by antenna elements at 0.81 GHz. Due to the inherent orthogonality of the modes, proper excitation of these modes by two antenna elements will result in orthogonal radiation patterns and high isolation between the antenna ports. Therefore, the proposed approach enables the effective use of the chassis to achieve MIMO antennas with good performance.