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Compact Metamaterial Based Antennas for MIMO Applications

Kevin M. K. H. Leong(1), Cheng-Jung Lee(1), and Tatsuo Itoh*(1)

(1) University ofCalifornia, Los Angeles, 405 Hilgard Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90095, U.S.A.
Email: itoh( dee. ucla. edu
INTRODUCTION

Multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems [1,2] have shown great promise for use in next generation wireless
services and are currently used in limited applications today. MIMO takes advantage of transmission in multipath rich
environments where each multipath route can be treated as a separate channel occupying the same frequency band. It
has been shown that the information capacity increases linearly asymptotically with the number of antenna elements of
a MIMO system. Data received by each MIMO receive antenna is treated as a linear combination of the multiple
transmitted data streams created by the effect of multipath. The data streams are separated at the receiver using MIMO
algorithms that rely on estimates of all channels between each transmitter and each receiver.
Numerous studies have been performed by the electromagnetics and antenna engineering communities of the benefits
and drawbacks of different antennas for use in MIMO systems. In order to accommodate the vision of implementing
compact portable MIMO based transceivers, the antenna elements should be compact in size and be easily integrated
with compact devices. Furthermore, the issue of coupling between closely spaced antennas is also an important factor
in MIMO system antennas. The high capacity offered by the MIMO system is reduced if the various signals at the
receiver are correlated. Signal correlation occurs through both mutual coupling and close antenna spacing.

Metamaterial based transmission lines have been developed and have been shown to exhibit unique features of antiparallel phase velocity and group velocity and zero propagation constant at a certain frequency. These transmission
lines have been applied to design of both active and passive microwave components and novel leaky wave antennas and
2D surfaces used for near-field focusing [3-6]. At low frequencies, the propagation constant of the metamaterial based
transmission lines approach negative infinity. Making use of this phenomenon, an electrically large but physically small
antenna was developed and characterized in [7].
In this paper, a compact metamaterial based antenna is described and evaluated for applicability in a portable MIMO
system. Mutual coupling between two metamaterial based antennas is examined for different configurations. Radiation
patterns of the antennas are also shown.
8

LR

CL

LR

CL

CR

Icr

CL
IL

r9

CR

LL

1-4244-1088-6/07/$25.00 02007 IEEE.

13

Fig. 1 Infinitesimal unit cell model of CRLH-TL.

LHA=gion

NI O-N
0

-I

I0+N

Unit Cell

LR

RH region

1/N 2/N

3/N

N-2/N N-1/N1

-1

Fig. 2 Representative dispersion diagram of CRLH-TL.

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Fig. 3 Schematic of compact metamaterial based


antenna.

Fig. 4 Photograph of measurement configuration for


two element closely spaced array.

COMPACT METAMATERIAL BASED ANTENNA

The metamaterial based transmission line can be analyzed by using transmission line theory. The infinitesimal
equivalent circuit model of the composite right/left handed (CRLH) transmission line (TL) is shown in Fig. 1. Instead of
only right-handed (RH) series inductance (LR) and RH shunt capacitance (CR) of the conventional transmission line,
left-handed (LH) shunt inductance (LL) and LH series capacitance (CL) are added to the model, thus forming the unique
characteristics of the CRLH transmission line. Fig. 2 displays a typical dispersion diagram of the CRLH-TL, where N
is the number of unit cells, p is the period, and cw, corresponds to the nth resonant frequency. Each frequency satisfies
the resonant condition of Pf3=nK/L where L is the line length. Our approach takes advantage of the CRLH-TL negativef parabolic dispersion relation at low frequencies in the left handed propagation region. This allows us to implement a
physically small but electrically large structure. The prototype antenna was designed to make use of the negative-f
region, and operate at an n= -1 resonance. The near-field profile on the antenna is identical half sinusoidal field profile
of an n =+ resonance mode. The exact frequency of the n= -1 mode depends on the left-handed inductance (LL) and
capacitance (CL) of the unit cell but not on the physical size of the resonator. Therefore, establishing a large inductance
and large capacitance value in the small unit cell is the main concern.

Fig. 3 shows the configuration of the metamaterial based resonant antenna used in this study, which consists of nine
unit cells arranged in a 3x3 arrangement. It uses two dielectric substrates and three metal layers. Thicker substrate with
low permittivity (sr1=2.2, h1=3.16mm) and thinner substrate with high dielectric constant (cr2=10.2, h2=0.254mm) are
stacked together. Each unit cell includes a 4mm by 4mm square patch on top, a metallic via connected to the ground and
metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors linked to the adjacent cell in both x and y directions. The MIM capacitor and a
long via can maximally increase the series capacitance and shunt inductance. Although, only a single row of three unit
cells are needed for resonance, the antenna uses three columns of the three cells to increase the radiation aperture, to
improve gain. The physical size of this fabricated antenna is 12.4mm by 12.4mm by 3.414mm or 1/102O by 1/102O by
1/362O in terms of free space wavelength. The antenna operates at n= -1 mode which corresponds to 2.42 GHZ with a 10 dB IS I I bandwidth of I1%. An antenna radiation efficiency of 440 and maximum gain of 3.3 dBi was measured for
the prototype antenna.
TWO ELEMENT ANTENNA ARRAY CONFIGURATION
MIMO receiver systems require use of multiple antennas having low mutual coupling in order to maintain the decorrelation of the received signals. In order to have multiple antennas mounted on a portable device, the antennas must
be compact in size and have minimal mutual coupling. In order to test this scenario using the proposed metamaterial

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-10
-15

~~~~~~~d=24.9mm

-10

-20

BE

m_-20
-25

-30

- '

-35
-40

1k

-dB(S(1,1))

dB(S(1,2))
-40 ---

-45
-50

2.2

2.4
2.6
Frequency (GHz)

2.8

Fig. 5 Comparison of coupling between


antennas for varying spacing, d.

-50

2.2

2.4
2.6
Frequency (GHz)

2.8

Fig. 6 Measurement of antenna coupling and return


loss for d=18.5mm.

based antennas, a compact two element array was tested. Two metamaterial based antennas were placed in a side-byside configuration and the coupling and impedance matching was measured for various separation distances. Fig. 4
shows a photograph of the test configuration of the two antenna H-plane array with edge-to-edge separation, d. The
individual groundplanes of the antennas were cut to 30mm x 40mm. The groundplanes of the two antennas were then
connected to a copper sheet which is supported by a foam block. A vector network analyser was used to measure the
antenna return loss and coupling in this test configuration. This measurement was done for d values of, 37.5mm,
30.3mm, 24.9mm, and 18.5mm. These values correspond to 0.3Xo, 0.242O, 0.22B, 0.152o in terms of free space
wavelength. Fig. 5 shows the measured antenna coupling for these four cases. The maximum coupling for each case
are -21dB, -18dB, -15dB, -11dB, respectively. As expected, the minimum coupling was observed for the largest
antenna separation. Fig 6 shows the full 2-port s-parameters of the two antenna test array with separation of 18.5 mm.
In this case return loss is less than -18 dB for both antennas. For all test cases the return loss remains less than -15dB
with minimal shift in center frequency.
Radiation pattern of a single antenna in this compact array configuration (d=18.5mm) was measured in an anechoic
chamber. For this measurement, a primary antenna was used as a receiver while the secondary antenna was terminated
with a 50Q load. The normalized E and H-plane patterns are shown in Fig. 7 and 8, respectively. The E plane pattern
of the two antenna configuration is similar to the E-plane pattern of the isolated antenna, having a broadside directed
beam. Furthermore, in both cases cross-pol levels are less than -l0dB with front-to-back ratio of 10 dB. However,
measurement of the H-plane pattern of the two antenna configuration shows a beam tilt away from broadside, differing
from the isolated antenna case. This is due to the presence of the secondary antenna element acting as a parasitic
scatterer. Cross-pol levels remain less than -1OdB.
CONCLUSION

Initial study of the applicability of compact metamaterial based antenna for MIMO systems has been presented. The
antenna offers the compact size and ease of integration needed by portable MIMO platforms. The mutual coupling of a
two element array with various separations was evaluated. The closest spacing of 18.5mm (0. 152O) was tested to have a
maximum mutual coupling of -11dB while maintaining its input impedance matching. In this test configuration, the
entire area occupied by the two element array was 60.9mm x 40mm. Other configuration types will be tested to
minimize mutual coupling while maintaining the compact overall array size.

89

90

90

0 180

180

22

315

270

270

Fig. 7 Measured normalized E-plane


radiation patterns of single antenna in two
element configuration (Broadside at 0).

Fig. 8 Measured normalized H-plane radiation


patterns of single antenna in two element
configuration (Broadside at 0).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research was funded by Rayspan Corporation. The authors would like to thank the members of Rayspan
Corporation for their technical support and cooperation in this work.
REFERENCES

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