A compact monopole MIMO array for the 5–6‐GHz band

In this article, a low-cost compact multiple-input multiple-output array composed of three coplanar waveguide-fed monopoles printed on flame retardant 4 substrate is presented.The particular feeding mechanism of each single element allows for a wideband behavior, and the specific delta (Δ) shape arrangement of the three radiators leads to a remarkably small footprint. The proposed design is capable of operating in the entire 5–6-GHz spectrum hence resulting particularly attractive for the IEEE 802.11n 5-GHz standard. A prototype was fabricated and connected to a Ralink 3 × 3 evaluation board to assess the throughput performance in a typical indoor scenario. The effectiveness of the proposed array is confirmed by experimental results. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 54:1854–1858, 2012; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.26955