An Ultra-Wideband Microstrip MIMO Antenna with EBG Loading for WLAN and Sub-6G Applications

Abstract: This manuscript presents an ultra-wideband Microstrip multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna covering the 2.4GHz to 6.5 GHz wireless local networks (WLAN) and Sub-6G bands. The applied MIMO antenna is composed of two symmetrical microstrip antenna elements. Each microstrip is designed based on the stepped impedance resonator (SIR) technique and closely positioned with about 0.25lambda of the lower band (2.5 GHz). The proposed MIMO antenna is incorporated with the EBG structure to enhance the radiation characteristic and isolation between two radiating components. The return loss (S11 under -10) covers 2.4 GHz to 6.5 GHz, and the proposed configuration obtains about 20 dB isolation within the 2.4 GHz to 6.5 GHz Sub-6G and WLAN bands, which shows an improvement compared to the initial design of the MIMO antenna. The envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) is under 0.02 over the frequency band. The simulation results offer that the proposed microstrip MIMO antenna system with the different levels of the EBG structure is suitable for WLAN and Sub-6G applications.