Design and Implementation of Miniature Multi-Mode 4 × 4 MIMO Antenna for WiFi 7 Applications

The compact and wideband patch antennas applied to WiFi 7 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna systems are presented. The MIMO antenna structure consists of four multi-branch radiating patches fed by coupled microstrip lines, which occupies a size of 32×32×1 mm3. By exploiting multiple resonant modes, an impedance bandwidth of 37% (5.07-7.37 GHz) achieves a reflection coefficient of less than -10 dB and fully encompasses both WiFi 7 high-frequency ranges. To alleviate mutual coupling, two decoupling structures, named complementary split-ring resonators (CSRRs), are employed between the MIMO elements to interact with the undesirable surface current; furthermore, the proposed orthogonal placement of four elements further minimizes radiation coupling. Consequently, the proposed array achieves measured isolations greater than 14.5 dB and 11 dB at 5 GHz and 6 GHz bands, respectively. The prototype of the proposed MIMO antenna has been manufactured. It has also been measured and the results show similarity with the simulations. The measured radiation pattern and the diversity performance, including the envelope correlation coefficient (ECC), diversity gain (DG), and multiplexing efficiency, are calculated, and they verify the outstanding diversity characteristics of the proposed MIMO antenna. This makes it a promising solution for emerging WiFi 7 wideband applications.