A CPW-fed flexible ultra-wideband MIMO antenna based on liquid crystal polymer for IoT applications

Abstract

In this study, an ultra-thin CPW-fed ultra-wideband flexible MIMO antenna for Internet of Things (IoT) applications is proposed. The antenna is etched on a liquid crystal polymer (LCP) substrate. Two antenna elements of the presented MIMO antenna are placed parallelly without an isolator. The measured S₁₁ is less than −6 dB from 4.7 to 45 GHz, covering China’s 5G and 5G millimeter-wave bands. The measured S₂₁ is less than −20 dB in most bands except 8.5–11.7 GHz, and the minimum |S₂₁| is 15.7 dB at 10.5 GHz. In addition, the simulation and measurement results of flexible MIMO antenna indicate the antennas have good radiation characteristics, and the maximum gain can get 6.4 dB. Then ECC, DG and TARC are evaluated. The proposed antennas are suitable for 5G-enabled IoT applications.

KEYWORDS:

• Co-planar wave-guide (CPW)
• multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO)
• LCP substrate
• internet of things (IoT)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chengzhu Du

Chengzhu Du was born in Haikou, Hainan Province, China. She received a B.S. degree from the Xidian University, an M.S. degree from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications and a Ph. D. degree from Shanghai University in 1995, 2003 and 2012, respectively, all in electromagnetic wave and microwave technology. She is currently an associate professor at the Shanghai University of Electric Power. Her research interests include flexible antenna and textile antenna, multiband and wideband antennas, and MIMO technologies.

Xun Wang

Xun Wang was born in Luan, Anhui Province, China, in 1996. He received a B.S. degree from the Shanghai University of Electric Power in 2018. He is currently pursuing an M.S. degree at the College of Electronics and Information Engineering, Shanghai University of Electric Power. His research interests include UWB-MIMO antenna, flexible antenna and millimetre-wave antenna.

Shunshi Zhong

Shunshi Zhong (SM’94) was born in Zhejiang, China. He graduated from the Department of Radar Engineering, Xidian University (formerly Northwest Telecommunication Engineering Institute), Xi’an, China. Since 1994 he has been a professor at Shanghai University, China. He has published over 200 journal papers and over 100 conference papers. His research interests include flexible antenna and textile antenna.