Mutual Coupling Reduction in UWB Modified Maltese Shaped DRA Array for MIMO Applications

In this paper, design of a tightly spaced two-element modified Maltese shaped dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) for multiple input multiple output (MIMO) applications is proposed. Ultra-wide bandwidth (UWB) is achieved by use of proposed Modified Maltese shaped DRA design. The antenna is fed using trapezoidal shaped conformal strip feed. The single element antenna was fabricated and measured bandwidth (BW) of about 111 % (3.6-12.6 GHz) was achieved. Based on the encouraging UWB performance of single element antenna, two-element antenna array with C-shaped Periodic Defected Ground Structure (PDGS) is proposed. Mutual coupling less than -18 dB over the entire band of interest is achieved using C-shaped PGDS. Different antenna design parameters, its parametric study, along with simulated and measured results are presented in this paper.