An Advanced Array Configuration Antenna Based on Mutual Coupling Reduction

Abstract

In this work, a microstrip antenna array that consists of 16 elements is designed at a frequency of 28 GHz, with a dimension of 35 mm × 33.5 mm and an operational bandwidth of 27.7–28.3 GHz. The idea is putting two antenna arrays next to each other on the same substrate and ground plane, as well as minimizing the overall size. This work presents a mutual coupling reduction for two arrays and studies the performance of the antennas through the suppression of surface wave propagation in a given frequency range. It proposed a new configuration for an artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) created by microstrip technology placed at a closed distance (0.3λ0) between the two antenna arrays. The improvement in the isolation between the two adjacent antenna arrays was studied according to the H-plane with a periodic unit cell of the AMC. The mutual coupling reduces to −40.0 dB at the operation frequency and isolation of 17 dB. The antenna array is also characterized by a good envelope correlation coefficient (ECC). The CST Microwave Studio electromagnetic solver was used to design, improve, and miniaturize the proposed configuration.