Multi-Band Balanced Printed Folded Arms Antennas for Heterogeneous Wireless Systems

Two MIMO balanced antennas made of eight printed U-shaped folded arms are closely spaced, studied and tested. This MIMO antenna functions over multiple bands, including GPS, WiMAX, C-Band and WLAN systems. Such multi-band functions and size reduction are accomplished by printing folded 4-U shapes on the top and 4-U shapes on bottom of each antenna. The present MIMO layouts are fabricated over 1.6mm FR4 substrate and has come up with a compact size of 60 × 23 ×1.6 mm
³
.The two MIMO balanced antennas are placed over a ground plane dimension of 120mmx60mm
²
. For mutual coupling reduction, an I-shaped slot is produced on the ground plane that effectively lead to a mutual coupling of less than -10 dB at the four targeted bands. Other parameters such as gain varies from 1.96dBi, to 5.1dBi, efficiency from 74.9% to 90.6%, omni-directional radiation patterns and current surfaces are demonstrated and indicated favourable results. This makes the design a suitable candidate for future MIMO systems.