2017 11th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP)
A Compact Four-element MIMO Antenna Based on
HMSIW Slot Antenna
Ming Wei1, Hu Liu2 , Tao Wan1, and Ying Liu2,
1
Xian Research Institute of Navigation Technology, Xian, China, weiming@stu.xidian.edu.cn
2
Xidian University, Xian, China
AbstractA novel four-element MIMO antenna operating at
millimeter wave band is proposed. The half-mode substrate
integrated waveguide (HMSIW) cavity backed slot antenna is
used as the element to realize a compact structure, high radiation
efficiency and interelement isolation. The simulated relative
impedance bandwidth is 29.6% from 23.5-31.0GHz for S11<-
10dB. And the isolation is lower than -22dB across the operating
band without any additional coupling reduction structure.
Index TermsMIMO antenna, Haf-mode SIW, Slot antenna.
I. INTRODUCTION
Multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna systems
have been widely investigated in the past decades to improve
the channel capacity and diversity performance. MIMO antenna
systems are one of the key technologies to support high data
rates in 3G and 4G communications [1]. However the
frequency bands exploited by the current wireless
communication systems are mostly below 3GHz, which have
restrained the further capacity enhancement by the narrow
bandwidth [2]. In recent years, with the growing interest in 5G
mmWave cellular communications, the antennas based on the
utilization of frequency bands above 6GHz is intensively
investigated. The 28GHz band has been considered as one of
the candidates for 5G communication systems. In [3],
experiments conducted by T. S. Rappaport et al demonstrate
that 28GHz and 38GHz frequencies can be utilized at base
stations and mobile devices. For the conventional sub-3GHz
MIMO communication systems, several methods are proposed
to improve the interelement isolation in MIMO antenna systems
and proved to be very effective. Electromagnetic band-gap
(EBG) structures and defected ground structure (DGS) are two
typical methods to suppress the surface wave by employing
their ban-stop effect [4, 5]. Besides neutralization lines,
decoupling network are also implemented between antenna
elements to reduce the mutual coupling (MC) [6, 7]. However
the application of these structures brings about complicated
circuitry especially when applied to a large-scale antenna array.
And the antenna elements based on microstrip or patch
antennas will suffer low radiation efficiency when employed in
mmWave bands.
Antennas based on the substrate integrated waveguide (SIW)
technology possess the characteristics of compact structure and
low loss comparable to those of the conventional waveguide,
but more convenient to be compatible with the integrated
circuits [8]. The concept of half-mode SIW (HMSIW) was
proposed in [9]. The waveguide width can be reduced by almost
half while retain the half-mode field distribution of the original
978-88-907018-7-0/17/$31.00 2017 IEEE 2118
structure [10]. Moreover the inherent properties of the
suppression of surface wave and the confine of the field inside
the cavity enable the HMSIW to be a perfect candidate for
future 5G mmWave MIMO antenna systems, which can
provide both high radiation efficiency and low mutual coupling
without any MC reduction structures.
In this paper, the HMSIW slot antenna, to the best of the
authors knowledge, is employed for the first time to realize a
four-element MIMO antenna system operating at mmWave
band with wide bandwidth, high efficiency, low profile and
compact structure.
II. Element Design
To realize a compact antenna structure and ensure high
radiation efficiency at mmWave band simultaneously, an
HMSIW slot antenna is applied as the antenna element. The
antenna element inspired from the HMSIW antenna designed in
[11], and adjusted to operate at 28GHz band. The schematic
structure of the element is illustrated in Fig.1. The radiating part
etched with a non-resonant slot with a width of w=0.6mm and
the ground are printed on upper and bottom side of a double-
layer Duriod substrate with a relative permittivity of 2.22, loss
tangent 0.0002 and thickness h=0.67mm. Both the length and
width of the substrate are L=5mm. The radius of the metal vias
is s=0.5mm and the distance between adjacent vias is d=0.9mm.
The condition d < 2 s and s < 0.1 are satisfied to make the
SIW cavity act similarly to a conventional metallic cavity [10].
The simulated |S11| against frequency is shown in Fig.2. It
can be seen that a wide operating frequency band for |S11| <-
10dB is obtained from 23.5-31GHz (29.6%), which is much
improved compared with that of the conventional SIW slot
antennas [12].
III. Four-element MIMO antenna
A. Antenna structure
The four-element MIMO antenna system is designed by
using the two configurations. The geometry of the whole
MIMO antenna is depicted in Fig.2. It can be seen that the
proposed antenna is composed of four identical HMSIW slot
antenna elements and obtained by duplicating the element
around the center of the substrate. The antenna structures are
implemented on a double-layer substrate and they are easy to
integrate with planar circuits. The elements 1 and 2, 3 and 4
are orthogonal to each other, while 1 and 3, 2 and 4 are parallel
to each other and arranged in an end-to-end configuration. The
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 2017 11th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EUCAP)

0
-5
-10
-15

S-parameters(dB)
-20
-25
-30
-35
-40 S11 S12
-45 S13 S14
S23 S24
-50 S34
-55
24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32
Frequency(GHz)
(a)
Fig.3. Simulated S-parameters of the proposed MIMO antenna
0 0
10 10
330 30 330 30
5 5
0 0
-5 -5
300 60 300 60
-10 -10
-15 -15
-20 -20
-25 -25
-30 270 90 -30 270 90
-25 -25
-20 -20
-15 -15
-10 -10
240 120 240 120
-5 -5
0 0
5 5
(b) 10 210
180
150 10 210
180
150

Fig.1. Geometry of the HMSIW slot antenna. (a) top view, (b) side view
(L=5mm, l=1mm) (a)
0 0
10 10
330 30 330 30
5 5
0 0
-5 -5
-10 300 60 300 60
-10
-15 -15
-20 -20
-25
-25
-30
270 90 -30 270 90
-30
-25
-25
-20 -20
-15 -15
-10 -10
240 120 240 120
-5 -5
0 0
5 5
210 150 10 210 150
10
180 180

(b)
0 0
10 10
330 30 330 30
5 5
0 0
-5 -5
300 60 -10 300 60
-10
-15
-15 -20
-20 -25
-25 -30
-30 270 90 -35 270 90
-25 -30
-20 -25
-15 -20
-15
-10
240 120 -10 240 120
-5 -5
0 0
5 5
10 210 150 10 210 150
180 180

(c)
0 0
10 10
Fig.2. Geometry of four-element MIMO antenna 5
330 30
5
330 30

whole size of the proposed MIMO antenna is

0 0
-5 -5
300 60 300 60
-10 -10

0.86 0.86 0.06 ( 9.5mm 9.5mm 0.67mm ) ( is the -15

-20
-15
-20

wavelength at the center frequency), which demonstrates a

-25 -25
-30 270 90 -30 270 90
-25 -25

compact antenna structure and a low profile. -20

-15
-20
-15
-10 -10
240 120 240 120
-5 -5
B. S-parameters 0
5
0
5
10 210 150 10 210 150

The simulated S-parameters for the proposed MIMO 180 180

antenna are given in Fig.3. It can be observed that |S11|, |S22|, (d)
|S33| and |S44| are less than -10dB and in good consistency Fig.4. Simulated radiation patterns for different ports at 28GHz. (a) port 1. (b)
within the band from 31.5-34GHz. Meanwhile the interelement port 2. (c) port 3. (d) port 4. (left: xoz plane, right: yoz plane)
isolations are lower than -22dB across the operating bandwidth.

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[6] S. Park and C. Jung, Compact MIMO antenna with high isolation
performance, Electron. Lett., vol. 46, no. 6, pp. 390391, Mar. 2010.
90.4 [7] L. Y. Zhao and K. L. Wu, A decoupling technique for four-element
90.2 symmetric arrays with reactively loaded dummy elements, IEEE Trans.
Antennas Propag., vol. 62, no. 8, pp. 44164421, Aug. 2014.
90.0 [8] M. Bozzi, A. Georgiadis, and K. Wu, Review of substrate-integrated
waveguide circuits and antennas, Microw., Antennas Propag., vol. 5, no.
Radiation Efficiency(%)

89.8
8, pp. 909920, Jun. 2011.
89.6 [9] W. Hong, B. Liu, Y. Q. Wang, Q. H. Lai, and K. Wu, Half mode
substrate integrated waveguide: A new guided wave structure for
89.4 microwave and millimeter wave application, in Proc. Joint 31st Int.
Infrared Millimeter Wave Conf./14th Int. Terahertz Electron. Conf.,
89.2
Shanghai, China, Sep. 2006, pp. 1822.
89.0 [10] S. A. Razavi and M. H. Neshati, Development of a linearly polarized
cavity-backed antenna using HMSIW technique, IEEE Antennas
88.8 Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 11, pp. 13071310, 2012.
[11] O. Caytan, S. Lemey, S. Agneessens, D. Vande Ginste, P. Demeester,
24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32
Caroline Loss, R. Salvado, and H. Rogier, Half-mode substrate-
Frequency(GHz) integrated-waveguide cavity-backed slot antenna on cork substrate,
IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 15, pp. 162165, 2016.
Fig.5. Simulated radiation efficiency against frequency for port 1.
[12] J. F. Xu, Z. N. Chen and X. Qing, A decoupling technique for four-
C. Radiation Properties element symmetric arrays with reactively loaded dummy elements,
IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 62, no. 9, pp. 45284536, Sept.
The simulated radiation patterns at 28GHz for the four ports 2014.
are given in Fig.4. It can be seen that the boresight gain is
about 3.8dBi and the cross polarization is less than 12dB. It
can be noticed that the maximum radiation for the proposed
MIMO antenna does not happen exactly at the boresight
direction, which is due to the asymmetrical structure of the
half-mode antenna elements. The simulated radiation
efficiency versus frequency is illustrated in Fig.5. It can be
seen that the efficiency is higher than 88% across the whole
operating band.

IV. Conclusion
A compact MIMO antenna is designed to operate at
mmWave band. The HMSIW slot antenna is utilized as the
antenna element to obtain broad operating bandwidth. Due to
the inherent properties of SIW structure to suppress the surface
wave and the confine the field inside the cavity, low mutual
coupling of less than -22dB is also achieved. The proposed
MIMO antenna can be a good candidate for future 5G wireless
communication systems.

References
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[3] Theodore S. Rappaport et al, Millimeter wave mobile communications
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[4] F. Yang and Y. R. Samii, Microstrip antennas integrated with
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