A compact highly flexible two-element wideband MIMO antenna based on modal analysis for 5G wireless applications

Abstract

The ever-evolving world of wearable technology demands compact, highly efficient, and flexible antennas to meet a seamless communication. To keep pace, a compact, flexible two element antenna with a low profile of 20 × 30 × 0.1 mm3 is presented in this article for 5G wireless applications. A lotus shaped radiator with stub integrated defective ground structure provides the desired band of interest with a measured impedance bandwidth of 4.56–5.65 GHz and isolation of 21 dB throughout the bandwidth. Characteristic mode analysis is exclusively utilized in this study to investigate and design the decoupling mechanism to improve the isolation. SAR analysis is performed using the Specific Anthropomorphic Mannequin (SAM) head model and a low SAR profile of 1.088/0.276 W/kg for 1 g/10 g is achieved. MIMO diversity performance of the antenna also shows favourable results with ECC < 0.5, DG ∼10, TARC < −10dB, MEG < −3 dB, CCL < 0.4 bps Hz−1 and ME < −0.5 that favours its applicability for real time MIMO applications.