A compact dual band MIMO dielectric resonator antenna with improved performance for mm-wave applications

A compact multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) that is suitable for internet of things (IoT) sensor networks is proposed with reduced coupling between elements. Two rectangular-shaped DRAs have been placed on the opposite sides of a Rogers substrate and each is fed using a coplanar waveguide (CPW) feed with slots etched in a dedicated metal ground plane that is located under the DRA. Moreover, locating the elements at the opposite sides of the substrate has improved the isolation by 27 dB without the need to incorporate additional complex structures, which has reduced the overall antenna size. Furthermore, a dual band operation is achieved since each antenna resonates at two frequencies: 28 GHz and 38 GHz with respective impedance matching bandwidths of 18% and 13%. As a result, the corresponding data rates are also increased independently. In addition to the advantages of improved isolation, compact size and dual band operation, the proposed configuration offers a diversity gain (DG), envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) and channel capacity loss (CCL) of 9.98 dB, 0.007, 0.06 bits/s/Hz over the desired bands, respectively. A prototype has been built with good agreement between simulated and measured results.