Mutual Coupling Suppression Between Two Closely Placed Microstrip Patches Using EM-Bandgap Metamaterial Fractal Loading

Alibakhshikenari, Mohammad; Khalily, Mohsen; Virdee, Bal S.; See, Chan H.; Abd-Alhameed, Raed; Limiti, Ernesto

Abstract

An approach is proposed to reduce mutual coupling between two closely spaced radiating elements. This is achieved by inserting a fractal isolator between the radiating elements. The fractal isolator is an electromagnetic bandgap structure based on metamaterial. With this technique, the gap between radiators is reduced to ∼0.65λ for the reduction in the mutual coupling of up to 37, 21, 20, and 31 dB in the X -, Ku -, K -, and Ka -bands, respectively. With the proposed technique, the two-element antenna is shown to operate over a wide frequency range, i.e., 8.7–11.7, 11.9–14.6, 15.6–17.1, 22–26, and 29–34.2 GHz. Maximum gain improvement is 71% with no deterioration in the radiation patterns. The antenna’s characteristics were validated through measurement. The proposed technique can be applied retrospectively and is applicable in closely placed patch antennas in arrays found in multiple-input multiple-output and radar systems.

Citation

Alibakhshikenari, M., Khalily, M., Virdee, B. S., See, C. H., Abd-Alhameed, R., & Limiti, E. (2019). Mutual Coupling Suppression Between Two Closely Placed Microstrip Patches Using EM-Bandgap Metamaterial Fractal Loading. IEEE Access, 7, 23606-23614. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2019.2899326

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 11, 2019
• Publication Date: Feb 15, 2019
• Deposit Date: Mar 11, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 12, 2019
• Journal: IEEE Access
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 7
• Pages: 23606-23614
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2019.2899326
• Keywords: Fractal , EM bandgap , two-element patch antenna , mutual coupling reduction , metamaterials , multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) , radar
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1637912