Mutual coupling reduction using near‐zero ε and <i>μ</i> metamaterial‐based superstrate for an MIMO application

Abstract

Here, a near‐zero permittivity (ε) and permeability ( μ ) metamaterial superstrate is presented as a decoupling structure for a multiple‐input–multiple‐output (MIMO) antenna. The proposed design offers peak isolation of 41 dB with reduced edge separation of 0.042 λ o at the resonating frequency. To verify the simulation results, the prototype of the proposed superstrate and antenna is fabricated and tested. The two‐element MIMO antenna has −10 dB impedance band of 5.5–5.92 GHz with a peak measured gain of 7.41 dBi and efficiency above 78%. The measurement results ensure an isolation enhancement of 30 dB with a correlation coefficient of &lt;0.26 within the operating band. The proposed method offers a good design technique for high gain and a closely packed MIMO antenna system for WLAN applications.