International Journal of Computational Intelligence and Information Security, February 2012 Vol. 3, No.

A Modified E shaped patch antenna with improved bandwidth and isolation for MIMO systems

C. Vishnu Vardhan Reddy1, S. Karthik2, P. V. V. Koteswararao3, K. Jagadeesh Babu4

1,2,3

Students, 4Professor & Head, Dept of ECE, SACET, Chirala, A.P., India.

E-mail: challa.vishnuvardhan@gmail.com

Abstract
The present work deals with the design of a modified E shaped patch antenna, which can be used for MIMO systems. The modified E shaped patch antenna designed in this paper offers an improved impedance bandwidth and return loss compared to a normal E shaped patch antenna. A 22 MIMO system is developed by using the proposed antenna resonating at a dual band of 5.31 GHz and 6 GHz for VSWR1.2. The developed MIMO system gives an impedance bandwidth of 19% with a reduced mutual coupling of -33dB. The developed antenna system can be widely used for the 4G and WiMAX applications. Keywords: Modified E shaped patch antenna, MIMO systems, Impedance bandwidth, Mutual coupling and VSWR.

1. Introduction
Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) technology is the latest paradigm, where multiple antennas are used at both transmitter and receiver to improve communication performance. It is one of several forms of smart antenna technology. MIMO technology has attracted attention in wireless communications, because it offers significant increase in data throughput, channel capacity [1] and link range without additional bandwidth or increase transmitted power. Because of these properties, M|IMO is an important part of modern wireless communication standards such as IEEE802.11n (Wi-Fi), 4G, 3GPP long term evolution, WiMAX (Wireless interoperability for microwave access) and HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) etc. The antenna design is one of the major concerns in MIMO technology [2]. However, when multiple antennas are involved at closer spacing the technical challenges are more pronounced compared to SISO system. Hence, the basic aim of MIMO antenna design is to minimize the correlation between the multiple signals [3]. The correlation between antennas is given by mutual coupling. If the mutual coupling is more between the antennas the system performance decreases [4]. There are various methods proposed in the literature to

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minimize the mutual coupling like using EBG (Electronic Band Gap) structure, DGS (Defected Ground Structure) etc. In the present work, a modified E shaped patch antenna is designed, which is suitable for WiMAX applications. The designed antenna resonates at a dual band of 5.31GHz and 6.01GHz for VSWR is 1.2, giving an improved impedance bandwidth of 19%. A two element MIMO system is developed by using the proposed antenna and a reduced mutual coupling of -32 dB is observed between the two antennas for a separation of 10 mm.

2. Antenna Design
The main drawback of patch antennas is their narrow bandwidth, which makes them unsuitable for advanced technologies like MIMO systems. Hence this work mainly emphasizes on the bandwidth improvement of an E shaped patch antenna. The bandwidth of patch antenna can be improved by using air as the substrate. However, dielectric substrate is preferred for increasing the mechanical strength of the antenna. We can improve bandwidth of patch antenna by employing various techniques like introducing parasitic elements, increasing the thickness of substrate and modifying the shape of the antenna and by introducing slots on the patch. The presently designed shape offers an improved bandwidth of 19%, which is better than bandwidth obtained in [5], [7] and [8]. The antenna geometry is shown in Figure.1, which is fed by a coaxial probe at position (Xo, Yo). The patch antenna is designed on the ground plane of size 27.2x30 mm2. The antenna is designed with the following dimensions: (L, W, h) = (17.2, 20, 3.2), (Xo, Yo) = (5.2, 10), Ls = 10, Lt = 2.8, Wt = 6.2 (all dimensions are in mm). Where, L is length of the patch, W is width of the patch, Ls is slot length, Ws is slot width and Wt and Lt are the center arm dimensions, h is the thickness of the substrate. Here the material used for the substrate is Rogers Duroid 5880 with a low dielectric permittivity of 2.2. In order to increase the bandwidth, few slots are made on the normal E shaped patch antenna. As shown in the Figure 1, two slots of size S=1 mm are introduced on the center arm of normal E shape and another two slots of same size are added to the top and bottom arm. These additional slots are responsible for improving the bandwidth of the proposed antenna. The simulation results of return loss for the normal E shape antenna and modified E shaped antenna are shown in the Figure 2. The antenna resonates at 5.31GHz and 6.01GHz frequencies, with a return loss of -26dB and 23dB respectively. The impedance bandwidth is improved to 19%, while the normal E shape patch antenna [5] has only 6% bandwidth. The reason for the improvement in the impedance bandwidth is mainly because of increase in the current path, which is resulted due to the additional slots incorporated on the patch. Hence the proposed shape is much suitable for MIMO systems [6] and WiMAX applications. The above bandwidth is

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obtained for VSWR 1.2. The VSWR plot of the proposed antenna is shown in Figure 3. The radiation patterns at both resonating frequencies are shown in the Figure 4 and Figure 5 respectively. The gain plot is shown in Figure 6 and from the figure, it can be observed that the average gain obtained at the resonant frequencies is around 6 dBi, which is suitable for most of the mobile applications.

Figure 1: Modified E shaped patch antenna

Figure 2: Comparison of return loss between normal E shape and Modified E shaped antenna

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Figure 3: VSWR plot of the proposed Antenna

Figure 4: Radiation pattern at 5.31GHz

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Figure 5: Radiation pattern at 6.01GHz

Figure 6: Gain plot

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3. Two element MIMO array using the Modified E shaped patch antenna
In MIMO systems, the major problem faced by the designers is mutual coupling, which arises mainly due to the electromagnetic interactions between the antennas in the array. This problem mainly occurs due to the small spacing between the antennas in the array. The mutual coupling can be minimized by using diversity techniques, which is mentioned in [8] and [9]. Here, two element MIMO array is designed by using the proposed modified E shaped patch antenna with a spacing of 10mm between the two elements. The array is designed on a ground plane of dimensions 54.4x30 mm2. The geometry of the patch is shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7: Two element MIMO array The S parameters of the developed MIMO system are shown in Figure 8. The two element array resonates at 5.31GHz and 5.99GHz with a return loss of -24dB and -23dB respectively. The corresponding mutual coupling (S21) value obtained at both resonant frequencies are observed as -27dB and -33dB. The obtained mutual coupling is low compared to the coupling between two normal E shaped antennas, separated with same spacing.

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Figure 8: S parameters of the proposed MIMO array

4. Conclusion
In this work a modified E shaped patch antenna is designed, which can be used for MIMO systems. Since the bandwidth is the major concern for a MIMO system, the proposed array resonates at a dual band with an improved impedance bandwidth of 19%. For the two element MIMO array, the mutual coupling is obtained as 27dB and -33dB at both the resonating frequencies, which is less compared to the mutual coupling between two normal E shaped antennas. Hence, the proposed antenna is far better than the normal E shaped patch antenna in terms of bandwidth and mutual coupling.

Acknowledgement
We sincerely thank, Dr. C. Subba Rao, Principal, SACET for his constant motivation and support for doing this research work.

References
[1] Foschini, G. J. and M. J. Gans (1998), On limits of wireless communications in a fading environment when using multiple antennas, Wirel. Pers. Commun., Vol. 6, No. 3, 311 335. [2] K. Jagadeesh Babu (2011), A review on the design of MIMO antennas for upcoming 4G communications, International Jourmal of Applied Engineering Research, Dindigul, Volume 1, No4 . [3] T. Svantesson (2002), On the Capacity and Correlation of Multi-Antenna Systems Employing Multiple Polarizations, Proceedings of IEEE Antennas and Propagation Symposium vol. 3, pp. 202-205. [4] Abouda, A. A. and S. G. H gagman (2006), Effect of mutual coupling capacity of MIMO wireless channels in high SNR scenario, Progress In Electromagnetics Research, PIER 65, 2740. [5] B. K. Ang and B. K. Chung (2007), A wideband E shaped microstrip patch antenna for 5-6GHz wireless communications, Progress in Electromagnetics Research, PIER 75, 397- 407.

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[6] P. H. Lehne & M. Pettersen (1999), An Overview of Smart Antenna Technology for Mobile Communications System. IEEE communications Survey, URL: http://www.comsoc.org/pubs/surveys, Fourth Quarter, 2(4). [7] K. Jagadeesh Babu (2010),A Modified E Shaped Patch Antenna for MIMO Systems, International Journal on Computer Science and Engineering,Vol. 02, No.07, 2427-2430. [8] K. Jagadeesh Babu (2011), "A Multi Slot Patch Antenna for 4G MIMO Communications", International Journal of Future Generation Communication and Networking Vol. 4, No. 2. [9] Arny Adila Salwa Ali1 (2007), Sharlene Thiagarajah, A Review on MIMO Antennas Employing Diversity Techniques, Proceedings of the International Conference on Electrical Engineering and InformaticsInstitut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia, pp no.17-19.

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