Design of a compact quad-port wideband printed MIMO antenna for vehicular communication environment

A wideband quad-port Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna with efficient isolation characteristics for 5 G New Radio (5 G-NR) applications is presented. The proposed antenna works in the span of 3-6 GHz frequency covering the n77/n78/n79 bands also covering the 5 G-V2X band (3300-5000 MHz), LTE-46 band (5150-5925 MHz) and Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) at 5.9 GHz band. The single element of the MIMO antenna structure is modelled by an elliptical structure stacked on a rectangular patch along with the feedline on the conducting plane. The ground plane is modelled as a rhombic design providing a Defected Ground Structure (DGS) to provide the resonance at the desired frequency band. Later, the antenna is evolved as a four-element MIMO system by arranging the antenna elements orthogonal to each other with a distance of separation between the adjacent antenna elements considered to be 10 mm. The all-inclusive dimension of the proposed antenna is 65 x 65 mm2. The simulated MIMO structure is fabricated and measured for antenna parameters and MIMO parameters such as isolation characteristics and MIMO diversity performances. The simulated values are obtained at acceptable limits with the measured values for the proposed wideband frequency range of operation. The compact, wideband antenna is found to be suitable for various 5 G-NR applications, especially Wi-Fi-assisted Vehicular Communication in the sub-6 GHz frequency range.