Microstrip Patch Antenna Array Mutual Coupling Reduction using Capacitive Loaded Miniaturized EBG

Abstract

In this paper, a compact miniaturized EBG loaded with surface mounting capacitor has been developed. The dimension of the EBG patch with approximately λ/36 has been achieved with dimension highly dependent on the capacitor values. The integration of the capacitive loaded miniaturized EBG with a couple of microstrip patch antenna has reduced approximately 12dB mutual coupling within the elements at the antenna resonance frequency of 2.2GHz. The antenna E-plane gain has been improved for more than 2dB with 3dB reduction in side lobes when comparing the traditional array with the array integrated with EBG. The propagation characteristics and gain of the array have been analyzed using CST Microwave Studio (CST MWS). The measured results have shown good agreement with the simulated results. The miniaturized EBG will be very useful in minimizing the space within the array antenna especially for the MIMO application