Progress In Electromagnetics Research M, Vol.

85, 95–104, 2019

Design of a Four-Element MIMO Antenna with Low Mutual

Coupling in a Small Size for Satellite Applications

Aziz Dkiouak1, * , Alia Zakriti1 , Mohssine El Ouahabi1 ,

Naima A. Touhami2 , and Aicha Mchbal2

Abstract—In this paper, a compact planar mono-band multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna
with four monopole elements is presented for X-band satellite applications (7.2–7.8 GHz). The MIMO
antenna resonates at 7.5 GHz, with high isolation (more than 26 dB) between its ports. It consists of
a four closely arranged symmetric monopole antennas with edge-to-edge distance of 7.2 mm (0.18λ).
In the top face, different forms are loaded at the rectangular patch. A U-shaped slot defected ground
structure (DGS) has embedded in the ground plane. The prototype of the proposed MIMO antenna
is simulated, fabricated, and measured to examine the performance of this antenna in terms of S
parameters, radiation patterns, envelope of correlation coefficient (ECC), and diversity gain (DG). As
a result, the presented antenna has a high isolation (S12 < −26 dB) at 7.5 GHz with an impedance
bandwidth of 430 MHz (7.28 GHz–7.71 GHz), which covers the X-band applications. The diversity gain
is about 10, and the envelope correlation coefficient of antenna is less than 0.02 which means that the
antenna has high performance at the resonance frequency.

1. INTRODUCTION

In future generation of wireless communication networks, high data transmission rate and low bit error
probability have been common requirements. Most of the research in this area focuses on the deployment
of new technologies to make wireless networks perform better and better. Multiple input multiple output
(MIMO) antennas are considered as a great solution for improving transmission reliability by reducing
the probability of error (diversity gain), increasing the transmission data rate (multiplexing gain),
decreasing multiple fading, and increasing channel capacity [1]. The MIMO technology is regarded as
a key of the 3G, 4G, and the future 5G wireless data communications. The critical point of MIMO
system design is to increase the isolation between the antenna elements that affects wireless channels,
the diversity performance, as well as channel capacity.
In MIMO systems, antennas are designed to ensure that the mutual coupling among their elements
is lower than −12 dB [2].
Recently, there are many techniques that have been used in the literature to reduce the mutual
coupling between antennas, and much effort has been devoted to minimizing the size of microstrip
antennas such as using a dielectric substrate of high permittivity [3]. In [4–9], the mutual coupling
between ports can be reduced by using defected ground structures (DGS) at the ground plane. In
other words, the utilization of electromagnetic band gap (EBG) structure has the ability to enhance
the isolation as well as increase the MIMO antenna performance [10–12]. The work in [13] presents
a MIMO antenna with improved isolation using meta-material structure. In [14–16], several x-band
MIMO antennas with different techniques were designed and fabricated.
Received 12 July 2019, Accepted 4 September 2019, Scheduled 20 September 2019
* Corresponding author: Aziz Dkiouak ([email protected]).
1 National School of Applied Sciences, Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Tetuan, Morocco. 2 Faculty of Sciences, Abdelmalek Essaadi
University, Tetuan, Morocco.
96 Dkiouak et al.

Several studies and new techniques have designed a MIMO antenna with low mutual coupling, small
size, and low envelope correlation coefficient. Sun and Wei [17] have analyzed and designed 4×4 MIMO-
antenna systems in mobile phone for ISM (2.4 GHz) applications. A design approach for dual-element
hybrid MIMO antenna arrangement for wideband applications is proposed in [18], and a Meta-Surface
Antenna Array Decoupling (MAAD) Method for Mutual Coupling Reduction in a MIMO Antenna
System is presented in [19] by introducing periodic split ring resonators (SRRs) on the metasurface.
In this paper, we design a miniaturized four-element MIMO antenna with high isolation for satellite
communications. The mono-band MIMO antenna is developed by using different forms loaded at a
rectangular patch in order to adapt the resonant frequency at 7.5 GHz and to increase the effective
capacitance and inductance, which influences the input impedance and current flow of the antenna and
thus, reducing its size. The position of the etched U-slot in the ground plane is optimized to improve
the isolation between antenna elements. The overall dimension of this antenna is 40 × 40 × 1.6 mm3
(0.47λg × 0.47λg × 0.08λg , where λg = guided wavelength at the lowest frequency of operation).
Meanwhile, the proposed MIMO antenna is compact in size, simple in structure, and easy in fabrication.

2. ANTENNA & DESIGN

2.1. Single Element Antenna

The design evolution of a single element compact microstrip antenna of the quad-element is illustrated in
Figure 1(a), and the antennas’ design procedure is simulated, and the corresponding reflection coefficient
S11 curves are plotted in Figure 1(b). In this design, an FR4 substrate is used due to its low cost and
easy fabrication with dimensions 20×20×1.6 mm3 . The relative permittivity and loss tangent of FR4 are
4.4 and 0.02, respectively. The antenna element is fed by a 50 Ω microstrip line for the excitation. The
initial design approach is started with a rectangular monopole antenna at the top face and with an etched
U-slot in the ground plane as shown in Figure 1 (Ant.0). As can be seen in Figure 1(b), a resonant
frequency of 7.2 GHz is created. In Figure 1 (Ant.1), the resonance frequency is shifted to 7.4 GHz
with slight enhancement in the impedance matching of the rectangular patch antenna by a rectangular
shaped slot loaded on the surface of the patch. In Figure 1 (Ant.2), the corresponding result shows
an improvement in the adaptation around 7.5 GHz by making modifications in the microstrip and the
U-shaped slot together. The final design of the proposed antenna can be obtained in Figure 1 (Ant.3),
with detailed dimensions as described in Table 1. The impedance matching of this antenna is much
better than others, which is improved to 42 dB at the X-band satellite communication (7.2–7.8 GHz) as
shown in Figure 1(b).
An antenna optimization is designed by using Computer Simulation Technology (CST) Microwave
Studio Software, and after regressive optimization, the optimized dimensions of the antenna single
element are illustrated in Table 1, as shown in Figure 2 with the overall volume of 20 × 20 × 1.6 mm3 .

Table 1. Dimensions of the proposed MIMO antenna.

Parameters Values (mm) Parameters Values (mm)

L 40 W 40
L1 16.5 Wf 3.14
L2 8 Ws 10.5
D2 6.5 U 12.5
Lu 23.5 V 6.6
Ls 6.2 b 2
s 3 D1 7.2
a 1 Du 10.5
Progress In Electromagnetics Research M, Vol. 85, 2019 97

Ant. 0 Ant. 1 Ant. 2 Ant. 3

(a)
0

-10
S11 (dB)

-20
Ant.0
Ant.1
-30 Ant.2
Ant.3

-40

6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0

Frequency (GHz)
(b)

Figure 1. (a) Antenna design procedure. (b) Different step reflection coefficient.

2.2. Four-Element MIMO Antenna

The increase of the number of transmitter and receiver antennas can enhance the communication quality
and increase the channel capacity without extra radiation power and spectrum bandwidth. In this
section, four symmetrical monopole antenna elements printed on the top face of the substrate and four
symmetrical U-slots etched on the bottom for X-band applications are presented with an overall size
of 40 × 40 mm2 . Each antenna element is fed by a 50 Ω microstrip line. As depicted in Figure 3, the
compact design of a quad-element MIMO antenna is proposed, which are indicated by P1, P2, P3, and
P4.
The simulated S-parameters of the proposed four-element MIMO antenna versus frequency is
illustrated in Figure 4. Due to symmetry, the analysis of the S-parameter can be easily carried out
by considering S11 = S22 = S33 = S44 , S21 = S12 = S34 = S43 , S13 = S31 = S42 = S24 , and
S14 = S41 = S23 = S32 .
According to this figure, the reflection coefficient |S11 | is adapted, with 42 dB at the desired
frequency band (7.5 GHz). The impedance bandwidth of the proposed antenna is about 430 MHz
(7.28 GHz–7.71 GHz). The isolation between port 1 and port 2/port 3, which are indicated by |S12 | and
98 Dkiouak et al.

(a) (b)

Figure 2. Geometry of the proposed single element antenna. (a) Top view. (b) Bottom view.

(a) (b)

Figure 3. Design of the proposed four-element MIMO antenna. (a) Front view. (b) Bottom view.

|S13 |, is very high and more than 33 dB and 35 dB at the operating frequency band, respectively. The
minimum isolation of the proposed antenna is nearly 26 dB at 7.5 GHz between port 1 and port 4 which
proves the good performance of proposed quad-element MIMO antenna.

3. ANTENNA PERFORMANCE

3.1. Fabrication and Measurement

The proposed MIMO antenna has been fabricated and tested in order to validate the simulated results.
The fabrication and measurement process is carried out at Abdel Malek Essaâdi University laboratories.
It is done using a printed circuit board (PCB) milling machine: The LPKF Protomat E33.
Progress In Electromagnetics Research M, Vol. 85, 2019 99

S11
1 Simulated
-
-10 S12
2 Simulated

S_Parameters (dB)
S13
3 Simulated
-
-20
S14
4 Simulated

-
-30

-
-40

--50
6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0

Frequenccy (GHz)

Figure 4. S-parameters result.

Figure 5 shows the top and bottom pictures of the fabricated four-element MIMO antenna. S-
parameters of this antenna are measured by a Rohde and Schwarz ZVB 20 vector network analyzer.
Since the four monopoles are symmetrically placed, only |S11 |, |S12 |, |S13 |, and |S14 | curves are given.
The measured −10 dB impedance bandwidth is 580 MHz (7.26 GHz–7.84 GHz) with 33 dB at the desired
frequency band and covers a satellite communication system in the X-band (7.2–7.8 GHz).

(a) (b)

Figure 5. Photograph of the fabricated MIMO antenna. (a) Top side. (b) Back side.

Also, the measured isolations of S12 , S13 , and S14 are higher than 24 dB at 7.5 GHz, which implies
MIMO good performance.
Measured and simulated S parameters comparisons of the MIMO system are shown in Figure 6,
which are in reasonable agreement. The small discrepancies between the responses are due to possible
fabrication errors, parasitic effects, and SMA connectors losses.
100 Dkiouak et al.

-20

-10
S-parameters (dB)

S-parameters (dB)
-30

-20
S12 Simulated (dB)
-40
S12 Measured (dB)
-30 S13 Simulated (dB)
-50 S13 Measured (dB)
S11 Simulated (dB) S14 Simulated (dB)
-40
S11 Measured (dB) S14 Measured (dB)
-60
6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0

Frequency (GHz) Frequency (GHz)

Figure 6. Measured and simulated S11 , S12 , S13 and S14 of the fabricated four elements MIMO antenna.

3.2. Envelope Correlation Coefficient and Diversity Gain

The envelope correlation (ECC) between the ith and jth antenna elements using far-field patterns [20]
can be calculated from Eq. (1):
 2
 ∗ ∗

XP R Eθi (Ω) Eθj (Ω) Pθ (Ω) + Eφi (Ω) Eφj (Ω) Pφ (Ω) d (Ω)
ECC (i, j) =  (1)
(XP R Gθi (Ω) Pθ (Ω) + Gφi (Ω) Pφ (Ω)) d (Ω)

· (XP R Gθj (Ω) Pθ (Ω) + Gφj (Ω) Pφ (Ω)) d (Ω)

where XP R denotes the cross-polarization power ratio of the propagation environment. In the formula
above, Gθ (Ω) = Eθ (Ω)Eθ∗ (Ω) and Gφ (Ω) = Eφ (Ω)Eφ∗ (Ω) are the power patterns of θ and φ polarizations,
respectively. Pθ (Ω) and Pφ (Ω) denote the angular density functions of θ and φ polarizations, respectively.
Eθi (Ω) and Eθj (Ω) are the electric field patterns of the ith and jth antenna elements in the θ
polarization, respectively. Eφi (Ω) and Eφj (Ω) are the electric field patterns of the ith and jth antenna
elements in the φ polarization, respectively.
1
In the uniform multipath environment case, XP R = 1 and Pθ (Ω) = Pφ (Ω) = 4π .
The envelope correlation coefficient ECC for two antennas can be approximated as follows:
 2
 ∗ ∗

Eθ1 (Ω) Eθ2 (Ω) + Eφ1 (Ω) Eφ2 (Ω) d (Ω)
ECC =   (2)
(Gθ1 (Ω) + Gφ1 (Ω)) d (Ω) · (Gθ2 (Ω) + Gφ2 (Ω)) d (Ω)

In the case of a (4, 4) MIMO system, with N = 4 antennas at both ends, the envelope correlations
between antennas i = 1 and j = 2, 3, 4 are shown in Figure 7, where ECC(1, 2), ECC(1, 3), and
ECC(1, 4) are envelope correlations between antennas 1 & 2, antennas 1 & 3, and antennas 1 & 4,
respectively. The envelope correlation in the interested frequency band is less than 0.02 which is good
enough for MIMO applications.
The diversity gain can be given by the following approximate expression [21, 22].

DG = 10 1 − |ρ|2 (3)

where ρ is the complex cross correlation coefficient, and |ρ|2 = ECC.

Progress In Electromagnetics Research M, Vol. 85, 2019 101

0.10

0.08
ECC (1, 2)
ECC (1, 3)
ECC (1, 4)
0.06

ECC
0.04

0.02

0.00
6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0

Frequency (GHz)

Figure 7. The ECC curve.

Figure 8 illustrates the simulated diversity gain of the MIMO system. From these curves, we can
see clearly that the diversity gain from far-field patterns is around 9.95 dB at the operating frequency
(7.5 GHz).

10.0

9.9
Diversity gain (dB)

9.8

9.7
DG (1, 2)
DG (1, 3)
9.6 DG (1, 4)

9.5

9.4
6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0

Frequency (GHz)

Figure 8. The DG curve.

3.3. Radiation Patterns

The comparisons results between measured and simulated radiation patterns in terms of E-plane (xoy-
plane) and H-plane (yoz-plane) at 7.5 GHz are shown in Figure 9. It shows that the E-plane radiation
pattern is of the shape of nearly symbol of ‘8’ at 7.5 GHz, but the H-plane radiation pattern is purely
omnidirectional (form of ‘O’) at 7.5 GHz. The measurements of radiation patterns are not carried out in
an anechoic chamber but in a free space, and for that the measured result is slightly distorted compared
with the simulated one.
102 Dkiouak et al.

Table 2. Comparisons among this work and recent published four elements MIMO antennas.

Minimum
Reference SIZE (mm3 ) Bandwidth (%) ECC Sub.
isolation
70 × 50 × 0.4
[23] 14.49/9.43/11.26 > 19.63 0.0014 FR-4
1.71λg × 1.22λg × 0.01λg
50.54 × 21.29 × 1.6
2 × 2 MIMO [24] 5.43/5.27 > 18.43 0.2 FR-4
2.00λg × 0.84λg × 0.06λg
ANTENNA
42 × 17 × 1.6
[25] 25.45 > 13 0.015 FR-4
2.11λg × 0.85λg × 0.08λg
40 × 40 × 1.6
[26] 58.6 > 11 < 0.1 FR-4
0.75λg × 0.75λg × 0.03λg
73 × 54.7 × 1.6
4 × 4 MIMO [27] 4.73 > 35 - FR-4
2.68λg × 2.01λg × 0.058λg
ANTENNA
40 × 40 × 1.6
This work 7.68 > 26 < 0.02 FR-4
0.47λg × 0.47λg × 0.08λg

90 90
0 0
120 60 120 60
-5 -5

-10 -10

-15 -15
150 30 150 -20 30
-20

-25 -25

-30 Simulated -30

Simulated
-35 Measured -35 Measured
180 -40 0 180 -40 0
0 -5 -10 -15 -20 -25 -30 -35 -40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 0 -5 -10 -15 -20 -25 -30 -35 -40 -35 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0
-35 -35

-30 -30

-25 -25

210 -20 330 210 -20 330

-15 -15

-10 -10

-5 -5
240 300 240 300
0 0
270 270

(a) (b)

Figure 9. The measured and simulated radiation patterns of the proposed MIMO antenna: (a) E-plane,
(b) H-plane.

As can be seen in Table 2, the proposed structure has a compact size, low ECC, and high isolation
at the operating frequency band as compared to published four elements MIMO antennas.
Progress In Electromagnetics Research M, Vol. 85, 2019 103

4. CONCLUSION

In this paper, a compact planar quad-element mono-band MIMO antenna with low mutual coupling
for X-band applications is presented. The proposed structure, operating at 7.5 GHz, has a simple
structure with a compact size of 40 × 40 mm2 . Measured results show that the proposed antenna has
an impedance bandwidth of 580 MHz (7.26 GHz–7.84 GHz) with high isolation (more than 24 dB) at
the operating frequency band. Furthermore, the proposed structure has a good diversity performance
at the resonance frequency band, with high diversity gain and low ECC values of 9.95 dB and 0.02,
respectively.

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