Mutual coupling reduction of a dual-band 2×1 MIMO antenna using two pairs of λ/4 slots for WLAN/WiMAX applications

In this paper, a technique for reducing mutual coupling between elements of a dual-band 2×1 multi-input multi-output (MIMO) antenna is presented to operate at 3.5GHz and 5.3GHz for (WLAN/WiMAX) wireless communication applications. This technique is achieved by adopting two pairs of quarter wavelength λ/4 slots. The two pairs of slot cuts of length λ/4 at 3.5 GHz and 5.3 GHz are placed on the top and bottom of the ground plane respectively. The fabricated prototype shows a very low mutual coupling of −30dB and −35dB in the lower and higher band respectively with envelope correlation coefficient less than 0.1. The patch size of the antenna is 19.9 × 27 mm
²
. The antenna gains are found as 3dBi at the lower band and between 1.2dBi and 2dBi at the upper band.