Electromagnetic coupling reduction in dual-band microstrip antenna array using ultra-compact single-negative electric metamaterials for MIMO application

In this paper, an ultra-compact single negative (SNG) electric waveguided metamaterial (WG-MTM) is first investigated and used to reduce the mutual coupling in E & H planes of a dual-band microstrip antenna array. The proposed SNG electric WG-MTM unit cell is designed by etching two different symmetrical spiral lines on the ground, and has two stop-bands operating at 1.86 GHz and 2.40 GHz. The circuit size is very compact, which is only lambda(0)/33.6 x lambda(0)/15.1 (where lambda(0) is the wavelength at 1.86 GHz in free space). Taking advantage of the dual-stopband property of the proposed SNG electric WG-MTM, a dual-band microstrip antenna array operating at 1.86 GHz and 2.40 GHz with very low mutual coupling is designed by embedding a cross shaped array of the proposed SNG electric WG-MTM. The measured and simulated results of the designed dual-band antenna array are in good agreement with each other, indicating that the mutual coupling of the fabricated dual-band antenna array realizes 9.8/11.1 dB reductions in the H plane, 8.5/7.9 dB reductions in the E plane at 1.86 GHz and 2.40 GHz, respectively. Besides, the distance of the antenna elements in the array is only 0.35 lambda(0) (where lambda(0) is the wavelength at 1.86 GHz in free space). The proposed strategy is used for the first time to reduce the mutual coupling in E & H planes of the dual-band microstrip antenna array by using ultra-compact SNG electric WG-MTM.