A Novel Modified Plus Symbol‐Assisted Rectangular Four‐Port MIMO Antenna With DGS and Zigzag Slots for 5G mm‐Wave Applications

ABSTRACT

The multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna plays a significant role in modern wireless applications by providing high data rate transmission, compact size, and low profile design and owing to its channel capacity. A conventional four‐port MIMO antenna has certain drawbacks, including a complicated design, inadequate impedance matching, and low gain. This research presents a novel four‐port MIMO antenna with a modified cross‐shaped defective ground structure (DGS) and zigzag slots for 5G applications in order to overcome these problems. The proposed antenna is built using Rogers' RT/duroid 5880 substrate, which has a thickness of 0.8 mm and a dielectric constant of 2.2. The overall dimension of the proposed antenna is 30 × 30 × 0.8 mm ³ ,which makes it suitable for miniature devices. The antenna operates over the frequency range of 26–30 GHz, covering the 5G mm‐wave band. However, the antenna's electrical performance shows good impedance matching with a measured reflection coefficient of −29.43 dB at 29.03 GHz, a gain of 8 dBi, and a VSWR of 0.5862. The design significantly enhances isolation from approximately −20 dB in a conventional design to −37.09 dB, due to the incorporation of the modified cross‐shaped DGS and zigzag slots. Thus, the performance of measured results is almost equal to simulated outcomes. Furthermore, the resilience of the antenna system is confirmed by MIMO performance metrics including channel capacity loss (CCL < 0.4 dB) and envelope correlation coefficient (ECC < 0.25). These results show a notable improvement over the current design. The proposed four‐port MIMO antenna's small size, strong gain, enhanced bandwidth, and good isolation make it a great option for cutting‐edge 5G applications like autonomous systems, wireless communication, and IoT‐enabled devices.