A Multiband Shared Aperture MIMO Antenna for Millimeter-Wave and Sub-6GHz 5G Applications

Area of Science:

• Electrical Engineering
• Electromagnetics
• Wireless Communication

Background:

• The increasing demand for higher data rates in wireless communication necessitates advanced antenna solutions.
• Existing antenna designs often struggle to efficiently cover both sub-6GHz and millimeter-wave (mmWave) bands required for 5G.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and analyze a shared aperture 2-element multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna system for 5G applications.
• To achieve simultaneous operation across sub-6GHz and mmWave frequencies using a single radiating structure.

Main Methods:

• A novel antenna design featuring four concentric pentagonal slots was developed.
• The sub-6GHz band is excited by a microstrip transmission line, while the mmWave band is fed by a 1x8 power divider via a T-junction.
• Detailed antenna analysis included design procedures, equivalent circuit modeling, current density analysis, and MIMO performance metrics.

Main Results:

• The proposed antenna covers multiple sub-6GHz bands (1.4-1.58, 1.82-2.14, 2.48-2.9, 3.1-3.8, 4-4.5 GHz) and a 28 GHz mmWave band with 500 MHz bandwidth.
• Excellent MIMO performance was achieved, with a maximum envelop correlation coefficient of 0.113.
• Maximum measured gain and efficiency were 8.5 dBi and 91%, respectively.

Conclusions:

• The developed shared aperture MIMO antenna effectively integrates sub-6GHz and mmWave capabilities for 5G systems.
• The design exhibits strong MIMO performance and backward compatibility with 4G, making it suitable for future wireless communication.
• This antenna offers a promising solution for next-generation wireless networks requiring broad frequency coverage.