Guard-Trace Utilization for Performance Enhancement of 5G MIMO Antenna

One of the essential parameters to analyze the performance of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna is the envelope correlation coefficient (ECC). This study evaluates the impact of utilizing a guard-trace on a $2 \times 2$ MIMO antenna to assess the efficiency of MIMO systems in enhancing the antenna performance. The evaluation is conducted by computing the ECC value of a $2 \times 2$ MIMO antenna, using scattering parameters as the data for the computation. To conduct the evaluation, a $2 \times 2$ fifth-generation (GG) MIMO antenna is implemented in two configurations, namely without and with guard-trace. Each antenna element is made of a rectangular patch to operate at the frequency of 3.5 GHz. The inter-element distances are examined for each configuration to investigate the effect of spacing between antenna elements to the value of ECC. The analysis results indicate that the utilization of a guard-trace on $2 \times 2$ MIMO antenna can enhance its performance by reducing the correlation value without increasing the spacing between antenna elements. In addition, it is found that the ECC values calculated based on S-parameters data are aligned and strongly correlated.