The Impact of the Position of MIMO Terminal User's Hand on Channel Capacity

In this paper the impact of the position of user's hand holding a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) terminal on system performance and more specifically on channel capacity is investigated. We consider a 4times4 MIMO system with a personal digital assistant (PDA) equipped with a compact array of 4 patch elements. Radiation field patterns of the antenna elements in the presence of the other elements as well as in the presence of a user's hand are simulated. Different positions of the user's hand are taken into account. The covariance matrix of the receiving antennas is evaluated by means of the obtained patterns. A correlation-based channel model is considered, where the antenna patterns are incorporated. Extensive simulations showed that the performance of the MIMO systems varies significantly with the position of the user's hand.