Multi-Beam Wideband Antenna Useful in MIMO Applications

In this paper, a wideband multi-beam antenna for MIMO applications at 5.8 GHz is presented. The main goal is to obtain a cheap multi beam antenna without using a beamforming network. Four compact antennas with unidirectional radiation pattern are connected with each order to form the side walls of a metallic cube. Each individual compact antenna is analyzed and optimized using the Theory of Characteristics Modes. Simulated results show that the four-port antenna provides four independent beams at 5.8 GHz. The available impedance bandwidth for the multi-beam antenna is 30% and the isolation between ports is below -15dB.