Compact Four-Element MIMO Antenna System for 5G Laptops

This paper presents a compact dual-band four-element multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna system for the fifth-generation (5G) laptops with a large display-to-body ratio. The four antenna elements, each being a three-dimensional inverted-F antenna (IFA) of the same structure and size, are constructed on the same T-cross-sectioned substrate, the vertical part of which is embedded in the 1 x 64 mm(2) clearance area created from the upper edge of the display ground plane. They are configured into two dual-antenna units. Within each unit, the two IFAs are arranged to be skew-symmetric with respect to the display ground plane, and their short-circuit points are brought close to each other to achieve the so-called short-circuit decoupling. In addition, the two units are mirror imaged of each other with a small gap in between and are connected by two decoupling chip inductors to form a high-isolation four-element MIMO antenna system. In the operating bands of 3300-3600 and 4800-5000 MHz required by 5G, the measured isolation is larger than 10 dB, and the measured antenna efficiency is beyond 35 %, both being large enough for practical applications. In particular, the proposed MIMO antenna system has a profile height of only 1.4 mm, which is very small, making it suitable for laptops with a large display-to-body ratio.