Design of triple-band monopole antenna with meander line structure for MIMO application

In this article, a novel wireless local area network (WLAN) frequency range monopole antenna is designed and manufactured for multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) applications. The proposed antenna consists of three pairs of folded L-shaped strips are placed side by side and printed on a dielectric substrate to generate triple-band operation which is suitable for WLAN applications. In this structure, each pair of L-shaped strips monopole antenna can create additional resonances within the WLAN range, which the desired resonant frequencies are obtained by adjusting the dimension of the folded L-shaped strips. The operating frequencies of the proposed antenna are 2.4/5.2/5.8 GHz which covers WLAN systems frequency range. Various configurations of array of this meander line structure monopole antenna for MIMO application are also studied. Prototypes of the proposed antenna have been constructed and studied experimentally. Good return loss and radiation pattern characteristics are obtained in the frequency band of interest. Simulated and measured results are presented to validate the usefulness of this proposed small antenna structure for MIMO applications. (C) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 54:2168-2172, 2012; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27008