4 Element compact triple band MIMO antenna for sub-6 GHz 5G wireless applications

A compact 4 element MIMO antenna operating in three Sub-6 GHz 5G bands is proposed. The single element antenna consists of a square-shaped patch where circular and rectangular-shaped slot cuts are incorporated. The single element is symmetrically arranged along the horizontal direction and in mirrored fashion along the vertical and diagonal direction. The 4 element MIMO antenna achieves a symmetric structure on top with the connected ground at back. With no extra isolation element, the proposed FR-4 based design achieves compact size of 0.39λ02 (f0 = 3.72 GHz) operating in three frequency bands ranging from (2.65%) 3.72–3.82 GHz, (2.33%) 4.65–4.76 GHz and (4.75%) 6.16–6.46 GHz. The satisfactory isolation amongst inter-elements (≥ 16 dB) with directional radiation pattern and an average gain of 2.5 dBi is attained for proposed bands. Furthermore, the antenna meets the MIMO diversity criteria by achieving DG > 9.7, ECC < 0.1, TARC < -10 dB, the ratio of MEG ≈ 1, and lastly channel capacity loss < 0.5 bits/s/Hz making it commercially viable for its use in wireless 5G devices using Sub-6 GHz bands.