MIMO multiband antenna system with nonresonant elements

Multi-input multi-output (MIMO) technology will enable high-data rates in wireless devices to allow speech and video calls to streaming media and web browsing all over a common platform. MIMO technology needs M antennas both in transmission and reception. As the space in a wireless device is limited, including M antennas is a challenge. To face such challenge, a MIMO antenna system is proposed which comprises two small nonresonant elements operating in the frequency region 824-960 MHz and two identical elements operating at 1710-2170 MHz. The size of each of the nonresonant elements is only 5 × 5 × 5 mm³. The proposed MIMO system is analyzed in terms of bandwidth, efficiency, correlation, and multiplexing efficiency. MIMO capacity is measured in a reverberation chamber considering a freespace Rayleigh scenario and also including the effect of a phantom head and hand. The results reveal that the proposed MIMO system provides capacity close to the ideal bound while having a small size and able to operate at several 2G, 3G, and 4G long term evolution standards.