An Eight-Element MIMO Antenna Array for NR Application.

We propose an eight-element multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna array for 5G (fifth generation) New Radio (NR) applications in the n78 (3.3–3.8 GHz) band to achieve a high data rate. In the proposed work antenna elements have rectangular slots on the ground. Microstrip lines directly feed an open slot in this design. The dimensions of the open slot are 21.5 × 4 mm (0.24 λ × 0.046 λ at 3.5 GHz) and the slot covers 19.18% of the bandwidth in the frequency band 3.3–4 GHz. The eight antenna elements are arranged in such a way that they are coupled and also achieve an excellent degree of polarization. The proposed eight-element MIMO antenna array is fabricated and measured. Across the operation band, the measured isolation of the proposed antenna is −35 dB, −18 dB, −11 dB, −50 dB, −18 dB, −30db, −11 dB, and −35 dB for S12, S15, S26, S34, S53, S56, S64, and S78 respectively. The proposed antenna design can achieve desired antenna parameters, i.e. Isolation >11 dB, total efficiency >68%, and several MIMO performance characteristics are evaluated, including envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) < 0.03, the total active reflection coefficient (TARC) is −7 dB, the diversity gain (DG) is 9.96 dB and the channel capacity losses (CCL) is less than 0.02 were measured at desired bandwidth. The radiation pattern and antenna gain are also shown in this paper. The design is suitable for 5G communication networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]