ABSTRACTThis study proposes a five‐element electric steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR) antenna that uses annular ring slot feeding and can be applied to Beamspace MIMO communication. A typical dipole active element that can be applied to the ESPAR antenna usually has a cylindrical structure. Since the coaxial cable is located inside the cylinder, it is restricted by the diameter of the dipole. In the proposed annular ring slot active element, the annular ring slot is formed on the outer conductor, and then the inner conductor is put into the outer conductor to be fed. The typical dipole active element currently takes a cylindrical shape, and therefore has a omnidirectional pattern. Therefore, it generates identical radiation patterns, regardless of the number of parasitic elements. Moreover, in the proposed method, it is easy to undertake impedance matching that controls the length, diameter, and thickness of the slot, outer conductor, and inner conductor. Furthermore, since the dielectric cylinder is located between the outer and inner conductors, it is structurally solid. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 58:2800–2804, 2016