IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL.

12, 2013 405

Novel F-Shaped Quad-Band Printed Slot Antenna

for WLAN and WiMAX MIMO Systems
Reza Karimian, Homayoon Oraizi, Senior Member, IEEE, Saeed Fakhte, and Mohammad Farahani

Abstract—A novel F-shaped microstrip slot antenna for WLAN

and WiMAX multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) systems is
presented. The proposed antenna structure consists of both open-
ended and short-ended slots connected by a metal “via” to a mi-
crostrip line. The open-ended slot is exploited to obtain resonant
mode at 2.4 GHz, and three short-ended slots are aimed to obtain
resonant modes at 3.5, 5.2, and 5.8 GHz, whose center frequencies
can be adjust by the slot lengths. The parametric studies show that
the center frequencies are independent of each other. A four-ele-
ment array configuration of the proposed antenna for MIMO ap-
plications is also studied. The simulation and measurement results
of reflection coefficient, mutual coupling, and radiation pattern are
presented, which attest to the applicability of antenna.
Index Terms—Multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) Fig. 1. Configuration of the proposed antenna element. (a) Front view. (b) Side
antenna, mutual coupling, open-ended slot, reflection coeffi- view. (c) Back view.
cient, short-ended slot.
In this letter, a quad-band F-shaped slot antenna, suitable for
I. INTRODUCTION MIMO applications, is presented. The proposed antenna oper-

T HE DEMAND for high-speed and high-quality data trans-

mission in wireless mobile communications has increased
greatly, which makes multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO)
technology attractive for its excellent performance in terms of
channel capacity without occupying extra spectrum and radia-
tion power. A practical MIMO antenna should have a low signal
correlation between the antenna elements and good matching
characteristics of input impedance [1]. In addition, since the
isotropic pattern leads to more channel capacity, sometimes it
is desirable that all the elements have the same radiation and
isotropic pattern simultaneously.
With the rapid development of the modern wireless commu-
nication system, antenna design has turned to focus on wide
multiband and small simple structures that can be easily fab-
ricated. Printed antennas, due to their small size and low cost,
are more attractive. Several wideband and multiband antennas
have been proposed in [2]–[11]. These include planar patch
antennas [2]–[4], slot antennas [5]–[7], and coplanar-wave-
guide-fed antennas [8]–[10]. Dual- and triple-band operation
can also be achieved with meandered strip and protruding
stubs [11].
Various printed antennas suitable for MIMO applications
have been proposed as well [12], [13]. The design of a triband
E-shaped monopole antenna loaded with narrow slots is given
in [12]. Also, a four-element MIMO antenna for wireless
applications is presented in [13].
Manuscript received February 01, 2013; accepted March 05, 2013. Date of
publication March 11, 2013; date of current version April 04, 2013.
The authors are with the Electrical Engineering Department, Iran University
of Science and Technology, Tehran 16844, Iran (e-mail: rezakarimian@elec.
iust.ac.ir).
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.2013.2252140
ates at the following frequency bands: 2.28–2.66, 3.35–3.65,
5.07–5.3, and 5.75–5.85 GHz.
Compared to the antennas in [2]–[11], the proposed antenna
structure not only achieves the quad bands simultaneously, but
also has a rather simple structure that is easy to fabricate. More-
over, the proposed antenna structure also allows for the indepen-
dent adjustment or tuning of each frequency of interest within
certain limits, which is an important aspect for manufacturing.
Also, in comparison to [12], the proposed array offers an en-
hanced performance in terms of the operation frequency bands
with better efficiency and gain in addition to the advantage of
smaller element size. The rest of the letter is organized as fol-
lows. In Section II, the antenna geometry and design are de-
scribed. The integration of four elements and the antenna per-
formance are explained in Section III. Finally, some conclusions
are given in Section IV.
II. ANTENNA GEOMETRY AND DESIGN
Fig. 1 shows the configuration of the proposed multiband slot
antenna fed by a 50- microstrip line, which is fabricated on a
Rogers RT Duroid 4003 substrate with the size of 33 36 mm ,
thickness mm, and relative permittivity . The
antenna structure consists of a feed line, a metal “via” connector,
and a radiation slot. Its design procedure is illustrated in Fig. 2.
More specifically, as depicted in Case I, the antenna design
starts by a conventional open-ended quarter-wavelength slot
connected to a 50- microstrip line with a metallic “via.” From
the reflection coefficient plot of Case I, this structure provides a
resonant frequency at 2.4 GHz. Adding a half-wavelength-long
short-ended slot to the aforementioned structure, shown in
Case II, leads to a resonant frequency at 3.5 GHz. Again, the
reflection coefficient of Case II verifies this resonance. Another
observation made from this plot is that the second resonant
mode, i.e., 3.5 GHz, has a negligible impact at the first one,

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406 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 12, 2013

Fig. 2. Design procedure of the proposed antenna from single-band operation

(Case I) to quad-band operation (Case IV).
Fig. 4. Surface current distributions: (a) 5.2 GHz; (b) 5.8 GHz.

Fig. 5. Reflection coefficient against frequency with different .

Fig. 3. Surface current distributions: (a) 2.4 GHz; (b) 3.5 GHz.

i.e., 2.4 GHz. In order to achieve the third resonant frequency

at 5.5 GHz, a half-wavelength slot is added to Case II. The
position of this slot is shown in Case III. It is worth mentioning
that adding this slot imposes us to change the position of the Fig. 6. Reflection coefficient against frequency with different .
feeding point because, as can be observed in Fig. 2, by this slot,
the structure of Case III has a new quarter-wavelength. Place-
ment of a narrow patch between the smaller horizontal arms of
the slot creates two half-wavelength slots that are different in
length. The effect of slot widths— , and —can
be also found on the impedance matching. In this letter, the
slot widths are optimized for best impedance-matching charac-
teristics. Case IV in Fig. 2 shows the geometry and simulated
reflection coefficient of the proposed antenna.
In order to investigate the mechanism of the proposed quad- Fig. 7. Reflection coefficient against frequency with different .
band antenna, current distributions for the four operation fre-
quencies simulated by CST 2010 are displayed in Figs. 3 and 4.
Note that in Fig. 3(a), current path is equal to a quarter-wave- both Figs. 3 and 4, an interesting point can be concluded. Com-
length for the frequency of 2.4 GHz ( , where paring the two currents distributions, between Figs. 3(a) and
is approximated effective dielectric constant). Observe also 4(b) or Figs. 3(a) and 4(b), the difference between half-wave-
that the surface current has a maximum at the short end and a length and quarter-wavelength slots can be easily understood.
minimum at the open end of the slot, similar to the conventional Simulated reflection coefficient of the proposed antenna for
quarter-wavelength antenna. Fig. 3(b) shows the current distri- different values of slot length, , is depicted in Fig. 5. From
bution at 3.5 GHz. Note that ground currents flow around the this figure, at 3.5 GHz, the increment of shifts resonant
slot edge is similar to a half-wavelength slot antenna. The slot mode to lower frequencies. Moreover, as stated, this mode has
length at 3.5 GHz is . The current flow path has two maxima a very little impact on the other three frequencies.
at the short end and a minimum at the center of the slot. Fig. 6 demonstrates the effect of various on , im-
Fig. 4(a) and (b) represents the simulated current distribu- plying that its variation affects resonant mode in 5.2 GHz. Also,
tion at 5.2 and 5.8 GHz, respectively. Note that splitting the by increasing , the resonant frequency at 5.2 GHz reduces.
lower horizontal arm into two narrow slots, as shown in Fig. 2 Fig. 7 depicts the variation of for different values of slot
(Case IV), introduces two current paths, leading to two resonant length . Note that the upper resonant frequency decreases
modes. The longer current path leads to the lower frequency at when raises, while the other resonant frequencies are al-
5.2 GHz [Fig. 4(a)], and the shorter current path leads to the most constant. Thus, from the current distribution and para-
upper frequency 5.8 GHz [Fig. 4(b)]. Finally, by considering metric study of the slot lengths, it can be interestingly concluded
KARIMIAN et al.: NOVEL F-SHAPED QUAD-BAND PRINTED SLOT ANTENNA FOR WLAN AND WiMAX MIMO SYSTEMS
Fig. 8. Simulated and measured reflection coefficients of the antenna.
Fig. 9. Simulated and measured -parameters in associate with the proposed
fabricated MIMO array.
that the proposed antenna structure allows for independent ad-
justment or tuning of each frequency of interest within certain
limits, which is important for manufacturing.
By fixing the optimum parameters of the proposed antenna,
good impedance matching through the operating bands for
WLAN and WiMAX applications can be achieved. The pa-
rameters are set as follows: mm, mm,
mm, mm, mm,
mm, mm, mm,
mm, and mm.
The comparison between the simulated and measured reflec-
tion coefficient characteristics of the proposed antenna, obtained
by CST 2010 and the Agilent E8361C vector network analyzer,
is shown in Fig. 8. Reasonable agreement between the simula-
tion and measurement results are attained.
III. INTEGRATION OF FOUR-ELEMENT ANTENNA
A. Impedance Performance
The antenna element presented in Section II shows that it is
suitable for WLAN and WiMAX applications and can be ar-
rayed for use in MIMO applications.
A practical MIMO antenna should have a low signal corre-
lation between the antenna elements and good matching char-
acteristics of input impedance. However, the reduction of mu-
tual couplings among closely spaced antennas is severe. A crit-
ical parameter affecting the mutual coupling and correlation is
due to the common ground plane, sharing the surface current,
which can be reduced by etching slots into the ground plane
among the antenna elements. The correlation among the re-
ceived signals is affected by the radiation pattern of the antenna.
The combination of antennas with orthogonal radiation patterns
can lead to low antenna correlation characteristics in a compact
configuration [13].
Fig. 9 depicts a photograph of the fabricated multiband
MIMO antenna. The antenna elements are orthogonal to each
407
Fig. 10. Measured radiation pattern at the frequencies of (a) 2.4, (b) 3.5, (c) 5.2,
and (d) 5.8 GHz (at two planes and , theta component is coplanar radiation
pattern; at , phi component is coplanar radiation pattern).
other, and a cross slot is cut in the ground plane. Note that by
using this slot, not only does the impedance matching remain
unchanged, but also 10-dB isolation improvements can be
achieved for compared to the common ground plane.
Comparison between the simulation results and measurement
data of scattering parameters for the proposed array configu-
ration is illustrated in Fig. 9. An E8361C vector network ana-
lyzer was used to measure the -parameter characteristics of the
fabricated MIMO antenna in an anechoic chamber. Reasonable
agreement between the simulation and measurement results are
attained. Observe that the mutual coupling better than 14 dB
is achieved for antenna spacing less than , where is the
shortest wavelength of the designed antenna. In this measure-
ment, one port is excited, and the other port is terminated by
the standard 50- matching load. Considering the symmetry of
the four-element antenna, some curves overlap with each other.
Regarding the overlaps of the curves, only four curves for simu-
lation and four curves for measurement are needed to be shown,
as depicted in Fig. 9.
B. Radiation Performance
Measured radiation patterns for three principal planes at four
frequency bands, when antenna 1 is fed and the other three an-
tennas are terminated by a matching load, are shown in Fig. 10.
The orientation of the antenna with respect to the coordinate
408
Fig. 11. Measurement results for correlation coefficient between antenna #1,
#2 (Rho 12) and between antenna #1, #3 (Rho 13).
TABLE I
MEASURED BANDWIDTH, SIMULATED PEAK GAIN, AND RADIATION
EFFICIENCY OF THE PROPOSED ANTENNA
system is clarified in Fig. 1. Nearly omnidirectional pattern is
achieved at all four frequencies. Note that, for compact require-
ment, slots are orthogonal. Therefore, electrical field are orthog-
onal as well, and consequently cross polarization at some planes
are quite high.
Table I shows the measured bandwidth, simulated peak gain,
and radiation efficiency for the operation bands. Results show
that good gain and high radiation efficiency have been achieved
at all four frequency bands of the MIMO system.
C. Diversity Performance
The envelope correlation coefficient can be calculated
through -parameters under the assumptions that the incoming
signals are uniformly distributed and the antenna elements are
lossless and well matched. The envelope correlation coefficient
of a four-antenna system may be determined using (1) and
(2) shown at the top of the page [13], where and are en-
velope correlations between the antennas 1, 2 and antennas 1, 3
(antenna number is indicated in Fig. 9), respectively. The mea-
sured envelope correlations of the array structure are shown
in Fig. 11. Observe that the envelope correlation coefficient is
below 0.05 for the interested frequency band, indicating a good
MIMO performance of the proposed antenna system.
IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 12, 2013
(1)
(2)
IV. CONCLUSION
A novel F-shaped multiband planar antenna is presented.
Measurement results show that the proposed antenna can pro-
vide four frequency bands applicable for WLAN and WiMAX.
Current density and parametric study show that the proposed
antenna allows independent adjustment or tuning of each
frequency of interest within certain limits. A configuration of a
four-element array has been shown, and the correlation coef-
ficient is calculated for evaluating the diversity performance.
The measured -parameters and radiation patterns show that
the proposed antenna can be used for MIMO applications.
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