A low-profile antenna system with compact new structure for reducing mutual coupling

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes a low-profile antenna system with the compact new structure for reducing mutual coupling. A rectangular artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) reflector plane is utilized to decrease the height of the proposed antenna. By adopting two new approaches, the isolation is significantly increased in an antenna system. Firstly, two inverted H-shaped metal walls with a low profile are introduced to suppress electromagnetic spatial couplings. Secondly, thanks to a compact folded T-shaped branch the electromagnetic surface wave couplings are reduced rapidly. An impendence bandwidth of 20.6% is achieved, ranging from 2.44 GHz to 3 GHz for |S₁₁|<-10 dB. Owing to the inverted H-shaped metal walls and the compact folded T-shaped branch introduced, the isolation is significantly improved by almost 20 dB in the most band. Besides, the envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) calculated by radiation pattern is less than 0.01. Finally, fabrication and measurement of the construction are presented to demonstrate the proposed methodology.

KEYWORDS:

• Low-profile
• mutual coupling
• inverted H-shaped metal wall
• compact folded T-shaped branch

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by ZTE Project of Industry and University Research Cooperation, and NSFC under Contract 51477126.

Notes on contributors

Lei Xi

Lei Xi was born in Weinan, China, in 1992. He received the bachelor's degree in electronic and information engineering from Xidian University, Xi'an, China, in 2014, where he is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in electromagnetic field and microwave technology. His current research interests include electromagnetic metamaterial, circularly polarized antennas, dual-polarized antennas, filtering antenna, and MIMO antenna arrays.

Huiqing Zhai

Huiqing Zhai was born in Da'an, Jilin Province, China. He received the PhD degree in electromagnetic fields and microwave technology from Xidian University, Xi'an, China, in 2004. From 2005 to 2008, he was a JSPS Research Fellow with Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan. From 2008 to 2010, he was a Research Fellow with The University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, TX, USA. Since 2016, he has been the Deputy Director of the Microwave Telecommunication Engineering Department, Xidian University, where he is currently a Full Professor and PhD Supervisor. He has authored or co-authored over 100 papers in referred journals, and over 10 authorized invention patents. His current research interests include antennas for wireless communication, electromagnetic materials, electromagnetic detection, and electromagnetic invisibility cloaking. Dr Zhai received the First Prize of Awards for Scientific Research Results of High Education of Shaanxi Province awarded by the Education Department of Shaanxi Provincial Government in 2013, the Best Technical Cooperation Project Award of Huawei Corporation in 2014, the Second Prize of Awards of Science and Technology awarded by Shaanxi Province Government in 2016, the Japan Society for Promotion of Science Research Fellowship from 2006 to 2008, and the Best Paper Award from the Institute of Electronics Information and Communication Engineers in 2009.

Long Li

Long Li was born in Anshun, Guizhou Province, China. He received the BE and PhD degrees in electromagnetic fields and microwave technology from Xidian University, Xi'an, China, in 1998 and 2005, respectively. In 2005, he joined the School of Electronic Engineering, Xidian University, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2006. He was a Senior Research Associate with the Wireless Communications Research Center, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, in 2006. He visited Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, as a Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS) Fellow from 2006 to 2008. He was a Senior Visiting Scholar with Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA, from 2013 to 2014. He is currently a Professor with the School of Electronic Engineering, Xidian University. His current research interests include metamaterials, computational electromagnetics, electromagnetic compatibility, novel antennas, and microwave devices design. Dr Li is a senior member of the Chinese Institute of Electronics. He received the JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship. He was a recipient of the Nomination Award of National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of China in 2007, the Best Paper Award in the International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation in 2008, the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of the Ministry of Education of China in 2010, and the First Prize of Awards for Scientific Research Results offered by Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education, China, in 2013.