500 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL.

15, 2016

Triple-Band MIMO Antenna for Mobile

Wireless Applications
Jwo-Shiun Sun, Han-Sheng Fang, Po-Yen Lin, and Ching-Song Chuang

Abstract—This letter presents a planar triple-band multiple- of MIMO antenna have been studied and proposed [2]–[5]; in
input–multiple-output (MIMO) antenna that meets GSM900/1800 [2] and [3], they use periodical metamaterial (MTM)-inspired
and LTE2600 bands protocols. The antenna element contains three resonators as insulators in a compact MIMO antenna; in [4] and
individual meander-line-type inverted-L radiators; the highest fre-
[5], they devise the slot structure on the ground plane to reduce
quency band radiator is fed by a transmission line, while the other
two utilize the proximity-coupling feeding mechanism driven by the coupling of MIMO antenna for portable units applications.
the highest band radiator. The MIMO antenna is incorporated In this letter, we present a compact two-element MIMO
with two symmetric triple-band antenna elements and two physical antenna for GSM900/1800 and LTE2600 protocols applica-
decoupling devices. The two antenna elements are closely spaced tion. The antenna element is composed of three individual
with 1/15 wavelength of the lowest band. The two decoupling de- meander-line-type inverted-L (MLIL) radiators corresponding
vices, a T-shaped slot and a meandering microstrip-line resonator, to the specific triple-frequency bands, where the structures of
are built for the highest and the lowest frequency bands, respec-
meander line and inverted-L both are utilized to reduce the
tively. Meanwhile, a negligible mutual coupling effect in middle
band is achieved by using a collinear-placed transverse meander- breadth and the height, respectively, of the antenna element;
line pair in the MIMO antenna. The antenna prototype measure- the MLIL radiator for the highest band is fed by a transmission
ment results show good impedance matching with low mutual cou- line, while it also works as a driver of the proximity-coupled
pling effect. The calculated envelope correlation coefficient verifies feeding network for the other two lower bands. The grounded
the suitability of the proposed antenna for mobile wireless access MLIL and the floated asymmetry transverse meander-line stubs
applications. are organized as parasitic elements to produce the lowest and
Index Terms—Envelope correlation coefficient, multiple-input– middle frequency bands, respectively. The MIMO antenna is
multiple-output (MIMO) antenna, planar inverted-F antenna. then composed of two triple-band antenna elements and two
physical decoupling devices; a T-shaped slot cavity resonator
I. INTRODUCTION on the ground plane and a winding microstrip-line resonator

N OWADAYS, the personal mobile information transfer placed between antenna elements are structured as the isolators
technology has entering into a new era. The global for the frequency bands of 0.9 and 2.6 GHz, respectively. In
demands on mobile wireless quality of service require high addition, a self-decoupling analogy in middle band is formed
transfer rate and high reliability. However, the available radio by a collinear layout of the two respective floated asymmetry
spectra have already been filled and crowded. Therefore, the transverse meander-line stubs in the MIMO antenna. The
multiple-input–multiple-output wireless access technology has physical structure of MIMO antenna, the analysis and design
been shown to be one of the most effective methods to improve of decoupling mechanisms, and the prototype manufacturing
the spectral efficiency. Furthermore, the modern consumer and measurement are given in the subsequent sections.
mobile wireless communication also places the multiband
II. MIMO ANTENNA STRUCTURE
requirement and the physical dimension constraint in terminal
devices that result in the needs of antenna element minimization Fig. 1 gives the geometry structure and the associated phys-
and interelement distance reduction in the mobile MIMO an- ical dimensions of the proposed MIMO antenna. The two an-
tenna structures. However, the close placement of the elements tenna elements are spaced with a distance of 22 mm, which is
will produce strong mutual coupling effect and degrade the per- equivalent to 1/15 wavelength of the lowest frequency band.
formance of the MIMO antenna. Consequently, the decoupling The antenna element, shown in the bottom of Fig. 1, is incor-
technologies are always needed in the MIMO antennas for the porated with three individual MLIL radiators labeled with A,
mobile wireless applications [1]. Many decoupling methods B, and C, respectively; the MLIL-B is placed at the opposite
side of the printed circuit board (PCB) with respect to MLIL-A
and C. The MLIL-A, B, and C are lengthened with the effec-
Manuscript received April 01, 2015; revised May 22, 2015; accepted June tive quarter-wavelengths of 2.6, 1.8, and 0.9 GHz, respectively.
09, 2015. Date of publication July 09, 2015; date of current version March 02, The MLIL-A is fed by a transmission line, while the MLIL-B
2016. and C are constructed as the parasitic elements and fed by a
J.-S Sun, H.-S Fang, and P-Y Lin are with the Department of Electronic Engi-
proximity-coupling mechanism through MLIL-A. In addition,
neering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan (e-mail:
[email protected]). the T-shaped slot on the ground plane and the winding me-
C.-S Chuang is with the Department of Electronic Engineering, Lunghwa ander-line layout placed between the antenna elements form the
University of Science and Technology, Taoyuan 33306, Taiwan (e-mail: chuang. decoupling devices for the 2.6 and 0.9 GHz frequency bands,
[email protected]).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this letter are available online
respectively; whereas, the ground plane slot having 1.5 mm in
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. height and 28.9 mm in width provides an electrical length con-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2015.2454536 formable to the two shunt quarter-wavelength cavity resonators

1536-1225 © 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
SUN et al.: TRIPLE-BAND MIMO ANTENNA FOR MOBILE WIRELESS APPLICATIONS 501

Fig. 3. Measured radiation patterns of the MLIL antennas in -plane at

(a) 0.9, (b) 1.8, and (c) 2.6 GHz.

Fig. 1. Geometry structure of the proposed MIMO antenna.

Fig. 4. Simulated scattering parameters of the MIMO antenna with element

placement distance of 1/15 wavelength of 0.9 GHz.

The radiation patterns of the prototype antenna element are

measured in an antenna measurement system of NSI 2000 at fre-
Fig. 2. Simulated and measured reflection coefficient of the triple-band quencies of 0.9, 1.8, and 2.6 GHz, and the results are shown in
antenna element. Fig. 3(a)–(c), respectively. As seen from the results, the MLIL
radiators at 0.9 and 2.6 GHz produce the nearly omnidirec-
at 2.6 GHz, and the winding meander-line layout with a se- tional radiation patterns, while that at 1.8 GHz gives a somewhat
ries 10-nH inductor connecting to the downside of T-shaped leftward shifted asymmetry pattern. The asymmetrical pattern
slot overall gives the electrical length equivalent to the effec- caused by the floated asymmetry meander-line stub will be fur-
tive half-wavelength resonator at 0.9 GHz. It is worthwhile to ther analyzed in Section IV.
be noted that the radiator labeled with B has been structured
as a floating asymmetry meander-line stub, that is, it has dif- IV. MIMO ANTENNA, MUTUAL COUPLING AND
ferent subsection length and space at its most left and right DECOUPLING INVESTIGATION
sides. Furthermore, the asymmetry meander-line stub is ori-
ented in the transversal direction that allows a collinear place- A. Mutual Coupling Effect
ment of the two respective transverse stubs in the two-element Based on the layout in Fig. 1, the MIMO antenna perfor-
MIMO antenna. The specific property and usefulness of the mances in both (impedance bandwidth) and (mutual
collinear placed asymmetrical stubs will be analyzed and man- coupling effect) have been simulated by varying the element
ifested in Section IV. After applying the meander-line and in- placement distance as a design parameter. With the aid of sim-
verted-L size reduction techniques, the occupations of the ele- ulation, the ultimate distance used in this proposed MIMO an-
ment antenna and the corresponding MIMO antenna are shown tenna is given by 22 mm, which is equivalent to 1/15 of the
to be mm and mm in width and height, wavelength of 0.9 GHz, and the corresponding simulated re-
respectively, on an FR4 substrate board. sults of and are shown in Fig. 4. By comparing the re-
sults in Figs. 2 and 4, the element operating frequency bands
III. SIMULATION AND MEASUREMENT OF MLIL ANTENNA at 0.9 and 2.6 GHz have shifted to 0.92 and 2.62 GHz, respec-
The preliminary design of the depicted MLIL triple-band tively, in the MIMO antenna However, the frequency band at
antenna element has been evaluated and optimized by using the 1.8 GHz remains unchanged. Meanwhile, it is noted that the mu-
Ansoft HFSS software. The simulated and the prototype mea- tual coupling of the MIMO antenna ( ) at 0.9 and 2.6 GHz is
sured reflection coefficients are given in Fig. 2. Observing higher than 11 dB. However, the coupling effect in 1.8-GHz
the results in the figure, the simulated frequency coverages are band is much better than 20 dB. The good isolation in the
ranged from 0.88–0.92, 1.78–1.81, and 2.45–2.62 GHz, and middle band can be attributed to the collinear placed radiators
the prototype measured are given by 0.89–0.92, 1.78–1.83, and [6, p. 125] and the asymmetrical element radiation pattern. The
2.4–2.68 GHz for the lowest, middle, and highest frequency isolation enhancement with an asymmetrical radiation pattern
bands, respectively, where the frequency band is measured in the 1.8-GHz band can be verified by the simulation results
based on the dB reference. in Fig. 5, where Fig. 5(a) gives the element radiation patterns
502 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 15, 2016

Fig. 7. Simulated electric field distribution of the MIMO antenna at 1.8 GHz:
(a) without decoupling structure and (b) with decoupling structure.

Fig. 5. (a) Simulated element radiation pattern and (b) the MIMO antenna mu-
tual coupling effect corresponding to the symmetrical and asymmetrical ML
stubs at 1.8 GHz.

Fig. 8. Simulated electric field distribution of the MIMO antenna at 2.6 GHz:
(a) without decoupling structure and (b) with decoupling structure.

Fig. 6. Simulated electric field distribution of the MIMO antenna at 0.9 GHz:
(a) without decoupling structure and (b) with decoupling structure.

producing by the floated symmetrical and asymmetrical ML

stubs, and it shows that the symmetrical ML stub generates a
nearly omnidirectional symmetrical pattern while the asymmet-
rical one creates an about 3-dB leftward shifted asymmetrical
pattern. Meanwhile, Fig. 5(b) shows the mutual coupling effect
of the MIMO antenna with collinear placement of the symmet- Fig. 9. Fabricated prototype of the MIMO antenna with decoupling structures:
rical and asymmetrical ML stubs, and the resulting respective (a) front view, (b) back view.
decoupling performances are given by 19 and 25 dB. The
simulated result really reveals that the decoupling performance
of the MIMO antenna has been enhanced by the leftward shifted
asymmetrical radiation pattern resulted from the properly struc-
tured asymmetrical ML stub.

B. Decoupling Configuration
The mutual coupling between MIMO antenna elements has
been one of the critical issues that can greatly affect the perfor-
mance of the MIMO wireless systems. As a result, use of effec-
tive decoupling mechanism is generally needed for the closely
spaced MIMO antenna. The coupling effect of the proposed
triple-band MIMO antenna has been surveyed in advance with
the aid of software simulation. The results with electrical field Fig. 10. Measured -parameters of the MIMO antenna without and with de-
coupling structures.
distributions are shown in Figs. 6–8 corresponding to the fre-
quency bands of 0.9, 1.8, and 2.6 GHz, respectively. By ob-
serving the outcomes in Figs. 6(a), 7(a), and 8(a), where the V. MIMO ANTENNA MANUFACTURE AND MEASUREMENT
coupling effect is evaluated without decouple structures, it is The proposed triple-band MIMO antenna has been printed on
found that the coupling at 0.9 GHz largely comes from the spa- an FR4 circuit board representing a prototype mobile phone unit
tial radiation, and that at 1.8 GHz, as the analysis result in Fig. 4, ( mm ), and the FR4 substrate has 1.6 mm thickness,
can be negligible, while that at 2.6 GHz most is coupled through a dielectric constant of 4.4, and a loss tangent of 0.02. Each an-
the common ground plane. Consequently, a winding meander- tenna element is fed by a 50- microstrip line. The image of the
line resonator is built and placed between antenna elements fabricated MIMO antenna prototype is shown in Fig. 9, where
to reduce the radiation coupling in the 0.9-GHz band, while a both front view in Fig. 9(a) and back view in Fig. 9(b) are pro-
T-shaped slot cavity resonator situated on the ground plane is vided. Fig. 10 shows the measured -parameters of the fabri-
used to interrupt the ground plane coupling in the 2.6-GHz band. cated MIMO antenna with and without decoupling structures.
The effectiveness of the built decoupling devices are simulated By examining the measured results, the parameter shows
and shown in Fig. 4 with and Figs. 6(b), 7(b), and 8(b) with good impedance matching in all three frequency bands. How-
the field distributions at 0.9, 1.8, and 2.6 GHz, respectively. ever, the parameter exhibits the isolation improvement of
SUN et al.: TRIPLE-BAND MIMO ANTENNA FOR MOBILE WIRELESS APPLICATIONS 503

The envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) has been used

as an effective index of merit to alternatively demonstrate the
MIMO antenna performance [7]. Without losing any generality,
assuming the unity cross-polarization discrimination and uni-
form space angle distribution, the ECC of an MIMO antenna,
denoted as , can be estimated in terms of simulated antenna
field patterns by a spherical surface integral given in the fol-
lowing equation [8]:

Fig. 11. Measured radiation patterns of MIMO antenna at 0.9 GHz:

(a) -plane and (b) -plane.

(1)
where and , represent the two polarized fields
of the respective two antennas. The calculated ECC are (0.721/
0.438) at 0.9 GHz, (0.303/0.317) at 1.8 GHz, and (0.554/0.328)
at 2.6 GHz for the MIMO antenna (without/with) decoupling
devices, respectively. By examining the ECC calculated, it in-
dicates that the proposed decoupling mechanisms really effec-
tively reduce the mutual coupling effect in the proposed MIMO
antenna.
Fig. 12. Measured radiation patterns of MIMO antenna at 1.8 GHz:
(a) -plane and (b) -plane.
VI. CONCLUSION
A compact and good-isolation planar triple-band MIMO an-
tenna for GSM900/1800 and LTE2600 mobile wireless proto-
cols is presented. The MIMO antenna utilizes two size reduc-
tion techniques to downsize the antenna element, and proposes a
self-decoupling analogy that greatly eases the complexity in the
decoupling structure design. As a result, the proposed MIMO
antenna with the characteristics of small size, low correlation
coefficient, nearly omnidirectional radiation pattern, and mod-
erate radiation gain has lent itself particularly suitable for the
employment at the mobile unit of wireless access communica-
Fig. 13. Measured radiation patterns of MIMO antenna at 2.6 GHz: tion so as to fully exploit the advantages of multiple antenna
(a) -plane and (b) -plane. diversity and multiplexing techniques.

the proposed decoupling structures, the mutual coupling is re- REFERENCES

duced from 12.09 to 16.06 dB in the lowest band, and that in
[1] H. Nishimoto, Y. Ogawa, T. Nishimura, and T. Ohgane, “Measure-
the highest band is decreased from 12.37 to 24.03 dB. That ment-based performance evaluation of MIMO spatial multiplexing in
is, a good performance in both impedance matching and decou- a multipath-rich indoor environment,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag.,
pling has been achieved. vol. 55, no. 12, pp. 3677–3689, Dec. 2007.
[2] C. C. Hsu, K. H. Lin, and H. L. Su, “Implementation of broadband
The MIMO antenna radiation pattern measurement is carried isolator using metamaterial-inspired resonators and a T-shaped branch
out by exciting one of the radiators, simultaneously connecting for MIMO antennas,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 59, no. 10,
the alternative radiator with a 50- terminal load, and the mea- pp. 3936–3939, Oct. 2011.
sured results are given in Figs. 11–13 corresponding to the oper- [3] C. H. Lee, S. Y. Chen, and P. Hsu, “Integrated dual planar inverted-F
antenna with enhanced isolation,” IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag.
ating frequencies of 0.9, 1.8, and 2.6 GHz, respectively. As ob- Lett., vol. 8, pp. 963–965, 2009.
served from the results, the radiation patterns in all frequency [4] X. Zhou, X. Quan, and R. L. Li, “A dual-broadband MIMO antenna
bands have been somewhat influenced by the inserted decou- system for GSM/UMTS/LTE and WLAN Handsets,” IEEE Antennas
Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 11, pp. 551–554, 2012.
pling structures. However, except the 2.6-GHz band, the other [5] J. Park, J. Choi, J. Y. Park, and Y. S. Kim, “Study of a T-shaped slot
two bands still produce a nearly omnidirectional pattern. Mean- with a capacitor for high isolation between MIMO antennas,” IEEE
while, the measured antenna radiation gains are 0.253 dBi in Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 11, pp. 1541–1544, 2012.
0.9 GHz, 0.6 dBi in 1.8 GHz, and 3.28 dBi in 2.6 GHz, and the [6] W. L. Stutzman and G. A. Thiele, Antenna Theory and Design, 2nd
ed. New York, NY, USA: Wiley, 1998.
measured radiation efficiencies are given by 21.23% in 0.9 GHz, [7] P.-S. Kildal and K. Rosengren, “Correlation and capacity of MIMO
49.2% in 1.8 GHz, and 74.99% in 2.6 GHz. The relative low systems and mutual coupling, radiation efficiency, and diversity gain
antenna radiation efficiencies in 0.9- and 1.8-GHz frequency of their antennas: Simulations and measurements in a reverberation
chamber,” IEEE Commun. Mag., vol. 42, pp. 104–112, Dec. 2004.
bands can be resulted from the size reduced meander-line and
[8] W. J. Liao, S.-H. Chang, J.-T. Yeh, and B.-R. Hsiao, “Compact dual-
inverted-L element antenna structure and the proximity-cou- band WLAN diversity antennas on USB dongle platform,” IEEE Trans.
pling feeding mechanism. Antennas Propag., vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 109–118, Jan. 2014.