IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL.
16, 2017
A Compact Triband Quad-Element MIMO Antenna
Using SRR Ring for High Isolation
Anitha Ramachandran, Sumitha Mathew, Vivek Rajan, and Vasudevan Kesavath, Senior Member, IEEE
AbstractA compact multiband four port diversity-based an-
tenna with high isolation between elements is proposed for
multiple-inputmultiple-output applications. The antenna res-
onates at following three bands: 1.952.5 GHz (covering UMTS,
LTE 2300, and 2.4-GHz ISM bands), 3.153.85 GHz (covering
WiMAX band), and 4.956.6 GHz (covering 5.2/5.8-GHz ISM
bands). The stub-loaded meander-line antenna is loaded with split-
ring resonators arranged in the form of a ring to enhance isolation
by 17 dB at 2.4 GHz. All four elements radiate with equal efficiency
with measured peak gains of 2.5, 3.7, and 4.4 dBi, respectively, in
three bands and have a very low envelope correlation coefficient
between elements. The overall size of the compact multiport an-
tenna system is 0.26 0.26 0.01 with a minimum isolation of
22 dB between its elements. The antenna elements and the isolation
enhancement structure are fully planar for an easier integration.
Index TermsDiversity performance, envelope correlation,
isolation, meander-line antenna, multiple-inputmultiple-output
(MIMO), polarization diversity, split-ring resonator (SRR).
I. INTRODUCTION
HE demand for high data rate and large-channel capacity
T drives the development of multiple-inputmultiple-output
(MIMO)-antenna systems. In contemporary MIMO systems, it
is significant to have multiband operation with improved channel
capacity, gain, bandwidth, and diversity performance. A prac-
tical MIMO antenna should ensure low signal correlation be-
tween elements with good impedance characteristics and highly
efficient individual elements [1].
In the past few years, a number of MIMO-antenna sys-
tems have been investigated for multiband wireless applications
mostly covering ISM bands. Multiband antennas are significant
for practical applications, and its implementation is more trou-
blesome in terms of compactness and decoupling of elements.
Dual-band MIMO of size 50 50 mm2 for wireless local area
network (WLAN) application have isolation of 13 and 16 dB in
the two bands [2]. Two-port, dual-band MIMO planar inverted-F
antenna of size 100 50 mm2 has an isolation of 20 dB by load-
ing slots on the antenna [3]. Another proposed two-port design
Manuscript received October 29, 2016; accepted December 5, 2016. Date of
publication December 15, 2016; date of current version May 22, 2017. This
work was supported in part by the Department of Science and Technology, Gov-
ernment of India, and in part by the University Grants Commission, Government
of India.
The authors are with the Centre for Research in Electromagnetics and
Antennas, Department of Electronics, Cochin University of Science and Tech-
nology, Cochin 682022, India (e-mail: anithar2@gmail.com; sumithamathew@
gmail.com; vivekrkurup@gmail.com; vasudevankdr@gmail.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this letter are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2016.2640305
1536-1225 2016 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.
1409
Fig. 1. Geometry of (a) single-element meander-line antenna and (b) Triband
antenna. (c) S 1 1 characteristics at various stages of evolution.
for WLAN guarantees an isolation of 15 dB with an overall area
of 100 150 mm2 [4]. A quad-band MIMO antenna covers the
ISM and WiMAX bands with a minimum isolation of 14 dB
[5]. The trend in modern wireless routers and adapters is minia-
turization. However, closely spaced elements can suffer strong
electromagnetic coupling and, hence, need to improve isolation.
Compact four-port MIMO antenna design for 2.4-GHz band has
a size of 40 40 mm2 and minimum isolation of 10 dB [6].
Various techniques to combat mutual coupling include diverse
polarizations [7], neutralization line [8], and loading of parasitic
elements between antennas [9]. A split-ring resonator (SRR) can
improve isolation by trapping coupling waves between closely
spaced antenna elements [10]. Apart from high isolation, com-
pactness, and coverage of multiple bands, planar architecture is
advantageous for an easier integration to a practical system.
The proposed antenna includes a meander-line loaded with
two L-shaped stubs fed by a strip line. Multiple antennas are
placed in the four corners to maximize the spatial separation
providing diverse patterns. Mutual coupling between meander
elements is lowered by loading SRRs on the sides of each ele-
ment to form a shorted ring at the antenna center. This induces
a negative group delay to cancel the coupling currents and im-
proves antenna efficiency. Individual elements of the multiple-
antenna system are performing equally well with high efficiency,
gain, and very low envelope correlation between elements.
II. ANTENNA GEOMETRY AND DESIGN
The basic element of the triband antenna is an electri-
cally small planar meander-line monopole antenna as shown
in Fig. 1(a). The ground planes of each antenna of dimensions
L W mm2 appear on the back side of the substrate, beneath the
strip line feed. The foldings in the meander line antenna cause
the antenna to resonate at a much lower frequency than a conven-
tional antenna of the same length. The antenna feed is through
a microstrip line of length L1 and width W1 . It is connected
1410
Fig. 2. (a) Configuration of four-port MIMO antenna. (b) Prototype of
fabricated antenna (top view and bottom view). Dimensions (in mm): L =
12, W = 4, W 1 = 2, W 2 = 1, W 3 = 0.6, W 4 = 1.6, W 5 = 4.3, W 6 = 3.3,
W 7 = 0.2, L 1 = 4, L 2 = 10.25, L 3 = 3.2, L 4 = 4, L 5 = 3.8, L 6 = 9.4,
L 7 = 5, d = 5.5, a = 12.5, b = 13.75, c = 9, m = 10.75, n = 3.
to the meander-line antenna through a transition of length L2
for impedance matching. A slightly higher thickness of vertical
segments (having in-phase current distribution) of meander-line
compared to the horizontal segments (having out-of-phase cur-
rent distributions) helps in enhancing the bandwidth to provide
better band coverage. The designed meander-line antenna shows
good impedance matching, with a 10-dB impedance bandwidth
of 450 MHz from 2.15 to 2.6 GHz as shown in case I of Fig.
1(c).
The objective of achieving additional resonances in the de-
sired band is accomplished by inductive loading using quarter-
wave stubs, and its dimensions are shown in Fig 1(b). Open stub
added to the strip line connecting the meander-line antenna has
no significant effect on the lower band, yet it produces resonance
at the required band. The resonant frequency is tuned by adjust-
ing the length of the stub, and impedance matching is achieved
by tuning the width of the stub. The total length of the stub
in this case is W5 + L6 , which is nearly one fourth of guided
wavelength g . The stub resonates with a 10-dB impedance
bandwidth of 480 MHz extending from 3.34 to 3.82 GHz cov-
ering the WiMAX operating band as shown in case II in Fig.
1(c). A small increase in bandwidth of the first band is observed,
due to the effect of fringing fields when a radiating element is
placed near the meander-line antenna. The third band is designed
to cover the entire 5.2- and 5.8-GHz ISM bands. This is achieved
by adding a second stub of length W6 + L7 on the other side
of the strip line. This slightly improves the first and second
resonances, and the third resonance bandwidth is increased by
more than two times. The stub resonance merges with the higher
resonance of the meander-line antenna to generate broadband
resonance with a 10-dB impedance bandwidth of 1550 MHz.
This extends from 5 to 6.55 GHz covering both 5.2- and 5.8-
GHz ISM bands. Meander resonant bandwidth holds good with
a bandwidth of 550 MHz from 2 to 2.55 GHz. This covers 2.1-
GHz UMTS, LTE 2300 band, and the entire ISM band at 2.4
GHz with a fractional bandwidth of 24.2%.
The triband antenna element is placed on the corners of a
square FR4 dielectric, exploiting polarization diversity as shown
in Fig. 2(a). The inductively loaded quarter-wave stubs are
placed on opposite sides of the central connecting strip line to
increase the isolation between conducting elements. L-shaped
stubs can limit the space requirements for obtaining a resonance
at a lower band of interest. Also, the cross polarization can
be reduced, which would otherwise be higher, if the stubs are
loaded in shunt to the strip line. The fabricated prototype of the
IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 16, 2017
Fig. 3. Unwrapped phase and group delay between P 1 and P 3 .
Fig. 4. Surface current distribution of the four-port MIMO antenna at 2.4 GHz
(a) without SRR ring and (b) with SRR ring.
four-port triband MIMO is shown in Fig. 2(b). The proposed
antenna is fabricated on a low-cost FR4 substrate with relative
permittivity of 4.4, thickness 1.6 mm, and loss tangent tan =
0.02.
III. STUDY OF ISOLATION STRUCTURE
Isolation studies reveal that the coupling between diagonally
placed meander-line antenna elements (i.e., between P1 and
P3 , or between P2 and P4 ) is higher. This is mainly due to
the identical orientation of the electric field, which increases
the near-field coupling. The design of an isolation structure was
made based on the SRR unit cell dimensions and negative group
delay calculation using simulation software. The group delay is
the negative derivative of the phase response as a function of
frequency (g = d/d). Owing to limited space, long rect-
angular SRRs having widths and gaps of 0.2 mm are placed
between the meander-line antennas. The unwrapped phase re-
sponse between highly coupled antenna elements is shown in
Fig. 3. The combination of the SRRs arranged in the form of a
shorted ring has an overturn in the phase response, at the me-
ander antenna resonance. This is an indication that a negative
group delay is occurring at this frequency, which acts like a
stopband filter between highly coupled elements [11].
The SRR ring induced negative group delay is shown in
Fig. 3, which results in the cancellation of coupling waves to the
diagonal element. As the power dissipation in the nearby radiator
is reduced, radiation efficiency is enhanced by 5.7%. Isolation
enhancement with SRR ring can be validated from the surface
current distribution in Fig. 4 at the meander-line resonance. The
increase in isolation with the inclusion of ring-shaped SRR
is shown in Fig. 5. Isolation between diagonal elements is
RAMACHANDRAN et al.: COMPACT TRIBAND QUAD-ELEMENT MIMO ANTENNA USING SRR RING FOR HIGH ISOLATION 1411

TABLE I
COMPARISON TO OTHER COMPACT PLANAR FOUR-PORT MIMO WORKS

Ref Total No of 10 dB Minimum

(20 ) Operating Bands Bandwidth (%) Isolation (dB)

[2] 0.167 2 3.2, 18.18 13, 16

[5] 0.274 4 15.38, 8.57, 4.4, 1.7 14
[6] 0.096 Wideband 60.6 10
[9] 0.247 1 3.8 10
[12] 0.605 Wideband 46.8 15
[13] 0.500 Wideband 82 16.6
[14] 0.231 1 6.9 40
[15] 0.333 1 2.04 10
Proposed 0.068 3 24.7, 20, 28.6 24, 22, 22.5
Fig. 5. Reflection and transmission characteristics without and with SRR.

Fig. 7. Measured radiation patterns of element 1 at (a) 2.4, (b) 3.5, and
(c) 5.5 GHz.

Fig. 6. (a) Simulated and (b) measured S-parameters of antenna.
improved by 17 dB with S13 (or S24 ) reduced from 17 to
34 dB in 2.4-GHz band with SRRs.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Simulated and measured reflection/transmission coefficients
obtained for the four-port MIMO antenna, with isolation en-
hancement structure, are shown in Fig. 6(a) and (b), respectively.
CST Microwave Studio is used for performing simulations of
the antenna. Antenna measurements were obtained by using the
Agilent PNA E8362B vector network analyzer. Reflection coef-
ficients are measured with a port, say P1 , excited, and other ports
are terminated with matched loads. The measured S-parameters
agree well with simulation results. All the four elements resonate
in three operating bands with a fractional bandwidth of 24.7%,
20%, and 28.6%, respectively.
The transmission coefficient curves show the isolation be-
tween elements in the operating bands. In the 2.4-GHz band,
the minimum isolation obtained is 24 dB. The next higher band
at 3.6 GHz has good isolation performance, with a maximum
coupling of 22 dB. The stub along the outer edges of the
antenna system has reduced coupling for orthogonal elements
along E- and H-planes, keeping S12 and S14 very low for the
second resonant band. The third band offers a very low coupling
in its entire operating band with a minimum isolation of 22.5 dB
at 6 GHz. The second stub placed towards the center of the mul-
tielement system causes the coupling between elements lying
on the same plane to be higher than coupling between diagonal
elements. The larger separation between the diagonal elements
reduces near-field coupling, thus S13 goes to a very low value
below 50 dB in this band.
Table I shows a comparison between the proposed antenna
and recently reported planar, compact MIMO antennas in terms
of size, number of operating bands, bandwidth, and the isolation
obtained in those bands. It can be observed that the proposed de-
sign offers a very compact MIMO antenna with highly isolated
elements and wide band coverage.
The far-field radiation pattern measurements are performed
in an anechoic chamber with a single antenna connected to the
network analyzer and the other ports terminated with matched
loads. The measurement setup includes a standard horn an-
tenna, a turntable, and its controller, an automated software in
MATLAB, which records the values on the run from the net-
work analyzer. The measured far-field radiation patterns for el-
ement 1 are plotted in Fig. 7 in three resonant bands at 2.4, 3.5,
and 5.5 GHz, respectively. The patterns are plotted for xz- and
yz- planes and includes both polarization components phi and
theta. It is observed that all four antennas have similar radiation
properties, with an orthogonal shift in polarization. An orthogo-
nal shift guarantees polarization diversity, and consequently the
pattern correlation between individual elements is low for this
proposed antenna.
Gain and efficiency measurements are performed and are plot-
ted as shown in Fig. 8. Gain measurements show peak gains of
1412
Fig. 8. Measured gain and efficiency in the three operating bands.
Fig. 9. Correlation coefficients at three operating bands.
2.5, 3.7, and 4.4 dBi at 2.5, 3.7, and 6.3 GHz, respectively, in the
three resonant bands. The average gains obtained in the three
operating bands are 1.6, 3.5, and 4.15 dBi, respectively. Effi-
ciency measurements show peak efficiency of 83.4%, 90.4%,
and 92% at 2.4, 3.76, and 6.1 GHz, respectively.
V. MIMO DIVERSITY PERFORMANCES
Diversity performance is analyzed to characterize the MIMO
antenna system. The diversity performances of the proposed
four-port MIMO antenna system can be evaluated from its en-
velope correlation coefficient (ECC). Envelope correlation ij
gives a measure of antenna radiation pattern diversity. Correla-
tion coefficient computed from the S-parameter gives values as
low as 0.05, but this method, though being simple, assumes the
structure to be completely lossless. Hence, ECCs are obtained
from far-field radiation patterns [16] as given in (1). XPR is
the cross-polarization rate of the incident field and is defined
as XPR = PV /PH , where PV and PH are the average power
along the spherical coordinates and . E i and Ei are the
complex envelopes of - and -components of far-field radiated
field when only ith port is excited and other ports are terminated
with 50- loads. P and P are the probability distributions of
the power incident on the antenna in the - and -polarizations,
respectively. The angle is defined by in elevation and in
azimuth. ECCs for an isotropic channel environment are plotted
in Fig. 9. It is observed that within the operating bands, correla-
tion coefficients are well below 0.3, which ensures good MIMO
performance
   2
 
 XP R.E i Ej P + Ei Ej
P d
ij =
. (1)
{XP R.E i E i P + Ei Ei P } d
XP R.E j Ej P + Ej Ej
P d
VI. CONCLUSION
A compact four-port MIMO antenna with high isolation
between elements is proposed. The triband element covers
IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 16, 2017
2.1-GHz UMTS, 2300 LTE band, 3.5-GHz WiMAX, and 2.4
/5.2 /5.8-GHz ISM bands, all of which are of great significance
in industry. The simulated and measured results obtained match
very closely. The miniaturized antenna has high gain and ef-
ficiency performance in all the operating bands with excellent
MIMO diversity performance. The diversity-based antenna ele-
ments use SRRs arranged in the form of a shorted ring to increase
isolation by 17 dB in the desired band. The proposed isolation
structure induces a negative group delay and can be employed
between elements with identical field orientation. The antenna
design method can obtain resonance in any required band with
ease. Due to its compact size, good MIMO performance, and
ease of design and fabrication, the antenna can be employed in
wireless routers and adapters.
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