Low-Profile Wideband MIMO Antenna with Low ECC and High Efficiency for Sub-6 GHz 5G NR/Wi-Fi 5 Applications

A low-profile wideband two-element multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna with high efficiency and high isolation covering in sub-6 GHz 5G new radio (NR) n77/78/79/Wi-Fi 5 is proposed for 5G communications. Antenna geometry is constructed by wide hexagonal slot patch and ground structure with a simple inset-fed microstrip line. The antenna wideband feature is greatly influenced by the hexagonal slot size and position. Two single antennas have been used to design MIMO system with a small interelement distance of 18 mm, having a size of 80 mm3 × 40 mm3 × 1.575 mm3. The proposed MIMO antenna achieves wideband coverage of 53% (3.02–5.2 GHz) and high-stable total efficiency of > 87% within the operating range. Moreover, the developed MIMO configuration shows a high isolation of > 14.6 dB and a high gain of 5.4 dBi. In addition, the designed MIMO system exhibited a very low-envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) of < 0.009 and near 10 dB diversity gain (DG) (greater than 9.96 dB), which are remarkably better than acceptable limit. Thus, the outstanding performances of proposed MIMO configuration support its potentiality for 5G NR/Wi-Fi 5 communications.