IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 62, NO.

4, APRIL 2014

from that part of the trajectory due to the occlusion from the buildings. Instead, signals from BS3 propagate via the identified reflector to
this part of the trajectory. These parts of the trajectory are also marked
with corresponding NLOS range, via the identified reflector in Fig. 4.
Clearly, these markings coincide with the impulse response and explain
the NLOS component. Note that the interruption and the NLOS component in Fig. 4 is due to that the van leaves the street with the occlusion
for a detour, and when the van returns to the street with the occlusion,
the NLOS component is back. Beyond doubt, it is the identified reflector that is active in the NLOS propagation during these segments.

2287

[12] J. A. Fawcett, Inversion of N-dimensional spherical averages, SIAM

J. Appl. Math., vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 336341, 1985.
[13] E. Dahlman, S. Parkvall, and J. Skld, 4G LTE/LTE-Advanced for Mobile Broadband, ser. Academic Press. New York, NY, USA: Academic Press, 2011.
[14] J. Medbo, Y. Jading, I. Siomina, and J. Furuskog, Propagation channel
impact on LTE positioning accuracy: A study based on real measurements of observed time difference of arrival, in Proc. IEEE Int. Symp.
on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications, , 2009, pp.
22132217.
[15] F. Gustafsson and F. Gunnarsson, Mobile positioning using wireless
networks: Possibilities and fundamental limitations based on available
wireless network measurements, IEEE Signal Processing Mag., vol.
22, no. 4, pp. 4153, 2005.

VI. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK

In this communication we devise a method for estimating a map of
NLOS reflectors for a mobile radio network based on multistatic SAR
imaging. We apply the back-projection principle for the image creation
which is a well known method from computerized tomography and
also conventional SAR imaging. The obtained images give promising
results where the reflectors are well-correlated with the large buildings
detectable in the aerial map of the environment. Also, the possibility
to extract which part of the trajectory contributed to different reflectors
and from which base station is added. In this way a map where dominating reflectors are present can be built up.
The applicability of the estimated reflectors is still unexploited. One
possible application area is to consider the estimated reflectors and occlusions in position estimation, [15].
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The evaluation data from the radio channel measurements has been
kindly provided by J. Medbo, Ericsson.

REFERENCES
[1] M. A. Jensen and J. W. Wallace, A review of antennas and propagation
for MIMO wireless communications, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag.,
vol. 52, no. 11, pp. 28102824, Nov. 2004.
[2] P. Almers, E. Bonek, A. Burr, N. Czink, M. Debbah, V. Degli-Esposti, H. Hofstetter, P. Kyosti, D. Laurenson, G. Matz, A. Molisch,
C. Oestges, and H. Ozcelik, Survey of channel and radio propagation
models for wireless MIMO systems, EURASIP J. Wireless Commun.
Network., vol. 2007, no. 1, pp. 119, 2007.
[3] 3GPP, Spatial channel model for multiple input multiple output
(MIMO) simulations, (TS 25.996).
[4] J. Medbo, M. Riback, and J.-E. Berg, Validation of 3GPP spatial
channel model including WINNER wideband extension using measurements, presented at the IEEE Vehicular Technology Conf., 2006.
[5] T. Fgen, J. Maurer, T. Kayser, and W. Wiesbeck, Capability of 3-D
ray tracing for defining parameter sets for the specification of future
mobile communications systems, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol.
54, no. 11, pp. 31273137, Nov. 2006.
[6] L. J. Cutrona, W. E. Vivian, E. N. Leith, and G. O. Hall, A high-resolution radar combat-surveillance system, IRE Trans. Military Electron.,
vol. MIL-5, no. 2, pp. 127131, Apr. 1961.
[7] N. Willis, Bistatic Radar, 2nd ed. Johnson City, NY, USA: SciTech,
2007.
[8] V. Krishnan, J. Swoboda, C. Yarman, and B. Yazici, Multistatic synthetic aperture radar image formation, IEEE Trans. Image Processing,
vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 12901306, 2010.
[9] C. Oliver and S. Quegan, Understanding Synthetic Aperture Radar Images, ser. The SciTech Radar and Defense Series. Johnson City, NY,
USA: SciTech, 2004.
[10] F. Natterer, The Mathematics of Computerised Tomography. New
York, NY, USA: Wiley, 1986.
[11] L. E. Andersson, On the determination of a function from spherical
averages, SIAM J. Math. Anal., vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 214232, 1988.

A Metaresonator Inspired Dual Band Antenna for Wireless

Applications
Sarin V. Pushpakaran, Rohith K. Raj, Vinesh P. V., Dinesh R.,
P. Mohanan, and K. Vasudevan

AbstractA novel metaresonator inspired dual band antenna for 2.4/5.2

GHz WLAN applications is presented. Dual band operation is achieved by
utilizing stacking technique on a dog bone shaped dipole antenna. Stacking
excites the magnetic resonance in addition to the existing dipole resonance
in the structure yielding the dual band design. The antenna has a 2:1 VSWR
bandwidth of 12% for the lower dipole resonance centered around 2.47
GHz and 10.5% for the second resonance at 5.18 GHz which is wide enough
to cover the 2.4 GHz and 5.2 GHz WLAN applications. The antenna is made
of a low cost FR4 substrate of relative permittivity 4.4 and height 1.6 mm
. Experimental and
and has a total dimension of
simulation studies of the antenna including the stacking height variation
and resonant mechanisms are explained in detail in this communication.
Index TermsDipole, dual band, magnetic resonance, metamaterial,
stacking.

I. INTRODUCTION
The invention of metamaterials has boosted the electromagnetic research industry over the decade. Researchers all over the world have
studied the metamaterial incorporated antennas for enhancing various
parameters of the antenna [1][5]. In all these designs, the metamaterial
structure is incorporated together with the radiating element to achieve
enhancement in the radiation characteristics of the antenna. The metaresonator design is different from the conventional designs because the
metamaterial structure itself is a resonating element and can be implemented using split ring resonators excited with a microstrip transmission line for dual band operation [6]. Ziolkowski et al. has achieved
multiband antennas by using electric and magnetic resonances of two
Manuscript received February 17, 2013; revised November 05, 2013; accepted December 13, 2013. Date of publication January 17, 2014; date of current version April 03, 2014. This work was supported in part by the University
Grants Commission (UGC), Government of India and Department of Science
and Technology (DST), Government of India.
The authors are with Centre for Research in Electromagnetics and Antennas
(CREMA), Department of Electronics, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin-22, Kerala, India (e-mail: vasudevan@cusat.ac.in).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this communication are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2014.2301161

0018-926X 2014 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.

2288

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Fig. 1. Geometry of the proposed antenna. (a) Top view, (b) top view of upper dipole, (c) cross-sectional view, (d) top view of microstrip to slotline transition, (e)
magnified view of the balun, (f) photograph of the fabricated antenna, (g) photograph of the microstrip line on the back side.

parasitically coupled [7]. The dual band metamaterial antennas proposed by Eleftheriades is based on negative refractive index transmission line [8], [9], in which one of the resonance is contributed by the
transmission line metamaterial inspired concepts. These antennas are
very compact and hence have the disadvantage of very low radiation
efficiency.
The stacked metal slab pairs and the stacked dogbone pairs constitute
a group of metamaterials [10][14] in which the resonances can be controlled independently by varying structural parameters and is the best
choice for low frequency metamaterial applications. The direct feeding
in an array of dogbone plates is well known [15]. We have previously
proposed the concept of combining electric and magnetic resonances
of the stacked metal slab pairs for obtaining directional broadside radiation pattern [16]. In this communication, we have replaced the upper
and lower radiating elements with dogbone metal plates and the upper
dogbone is suspended in air to get a magnetic resonance at the higher
side of the dipole resonance, yielding a dual band antenna. The lower
resonance corresponds to the electric dipole resonance caused by the
lower dipole itself and the second one corresponds to the magnetic resonance caused by the combined effect of the lower and upper half portions of the dog bone pair. The antenna is giving comparatively higher
gain and radiation efficiency as compared to the conventional metaresonator designs. This communication is arranged in two sections. In the
first section, simulation studies of the stacked dog bone dipole antenna
without the balun structure are included. The resonant mechanism of
the antennas including stacking height variation studies is included and
in the final section the experimental and simulation studies of the balun
incorporated antenna is included. The experimental works were carried
out using the HP8510C network analyzer and the simulation was done
using Ansoft HFSS software.
II. ANTENNA GEOMETRY
The geometry of the proposed stacked dipole antenna is shown in
Fig. 1. The stacked dog bone pair serves as the basic building block of
the antenna. The lower dog bone slab is coupled using a microstrip to
slot line transition. The input signal is fed through an SMA connector
soldered at one end of the microstrip transmission line. The microstrip
transmission line lies at the bottom side of the substrate and a very good
coupling to the slot line, fabricated on the top side of the substrate, is
achieved with the help of the circular slot etched at the lower end of the

slot line. The center conductor of the SMA connector is soldered to the
bottom microstrip line and the outer conductor of the SMA connector is
soldered into the top metal coating on which the slot line is printed. The
backside metal coating is represented by dashed lines in Fig. 1(d). The
designed Balun shows a very good transmission characteristics and it is
a modification of the virtual short with non uniform circular microstrip
and slot line open circuit through non uniform circular slot line [17].
We have simulated the balun structure in HFSS and it is showing good
transmission characteristics in the required frequency range. The parameters of the balun are adjusted to achieve a very good coupling from
the microstrip line. The antenna and the balun were fabricated using an
FR4 substrate of dielectric constant 4.4 and height 1.6 mm. The same
dog bone structure is stacked on the initial antenna at a height which
yields the final dual band design. For conducting the experiment, the
upper parasitic dog bone elements were supported using Perspex dielectric material having a dielectric constant of 1.2, on the corners of
each stacked plate.
III. SIMULATION ANALYSIS OF THE ANTENNA WITHOUT BALUN
Initially we have simulated the antenna in HFSS without the balun.
We have assigned lumped port in the XY plane at the bottom side of the
slot line in between the slabs. The antenna parameters for the stacked
,
,
,
case is found to be
,
,
and
.
The reflection characteristics of the antenna with and without stacking
are shown in Fig. 2. It is observed that the antenna without stacking is
showing a 2:1 VSWR bandwidth from 2.33 GHz to 2.86 GHz around
value of -29 dB. The resonant
the resonance of 2.55 GHz having an
mechanism behind this resonance is solely due to the half wavelength
electric dipole resonance on the dogbone plate. The antenna parameters
,
,
for this initial antenna is found to be
,
,
,
and
. Stacking introduces a second resonance at 5.2 GHz, while a
small left shift for the lower resonance is observed due to the coupling
between the plates. This newly introduced higher resonance is expected
to be the magnetic dipole resonance of the stacked plates and this can be
confirmed after verifying the parametric analysis and the current/field
distributions on the plates. The lowered resonance is found to be at 2.44
GHz. The 2:1 VSWR bandwidth for the higher resonance is found to be

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 62, NO. 4, APRIL 2014

2289

Fig. 4. Surface current distributions of the stacked antenna at 2.55 GHz.

Fig. 2. Simulated reflection characteristics with and without stacking.

Fig. 5. Surface current and Magnetic field distributions of the stacked antenna
at 5.2 GHz. (a) Surface current distribution, (b) vector H-field, (c) magnitude of
H-field.
Fig. 3. Effect of stacking height variation.

from 4.98 GHz to 5.32 GHz while the bandwidth of the lower resonance
remains the same.
In order to find out the reason for the newly introduced second
resonance, we have performed a variety of parametric variations on
the stacked antenna. The effect of stacking height on the reflection
characteristics of the antenna is shown in Fig. 3. In conventional
stacked dog bone metamaterial, increase in stacking height decreases
the magnetic resonant frequency [12][14]. The same observation
is valid here also. The first resonance is insensitive to variations in
. Corresponding to the variation in
from 0.8 mm to 3.2 mm,
the resonant frequency shifts from 5.67 GHz to 4.58 GHz. Increase
decreases the impedance matching performance for the higher
in
resonance due to the reduction in the coupling between the stacked
layers. We have also performed variations in dielectric constant of the
stacked layer and the results of such studies are not included here for
brevity. It is noted that the increase in dielectric constant has a major
effect on the magnetic dipole resonance and it is showing a downward
shift. If the dielectric constant of the lower dog bone dipole and the
stacked dipole becomes equal both the resonances merge together. So
it can be concluded that variation in stacking height and permittivity
has predominant effect on the second resonance frequency and it
confirms the presence of magnetic resonance. This is because of
the fact that the magnetic resonance is contributed by the coupling
between the stacked layers and the fields are strongly confined in
between the plates, whereas the lower dipole resonance is caused by
the lower dipole itself.
In order to further clarify the reason behind resonant mechanism,
we have taken the surface current and magnetic field distributions of
the antenna for the two resonances. Fig. 4 shows the surface current
distribution on the stacked dog bone pairs for the lower resonant frequency. It is observed that the lower resonance is caused due to the half
wavelength dipole resonance of the lower dog bone element with the
current maximum at the center feed point and a feeble current variation is observed on the stacked upper element. The simulated surface

current distribution for the second resonance is shown in Fig. 5(a). It

is observed that both the lower and upper plates are illuminated almost
equally and a strong anti symmetric current distribution on the stacked
plates is noted for this resonance. The higher resonance is thus caused
due to the magnetic resonance of the stacked plates. The same current
variation is observed for the magnetic dipole resonance of the stacked
dog bone metamaterial structure [12][14]. The simulated magnetic
field distributions for the higher resonance are also shown in Fig. 5.
It is observed that the magnetic field shows symmetric cosine distributions in between the stacked plates. The magnetic field minimum is
found to be at the center of the slot line and at the left and right edges of
the dog bone structure. The field maxima are found to be at the center
of each stacked plates. The H-field distributions are found to be similar to our earlier work [15] and hence the radiation pattern is expected
to be directional. In conventional continuous stacked dogbone metamaterial, the magnetic resonance is caused due to the anti symmetric
current distribution on the stacked plates with current maximum lying
at the exact center of the dog bone material [12]. This gives a close
proximity of the electric and magnetic resonances. But in our design,
due to the presence of the slit, the current maximum point is lying exactly at the center of the halved dogbone structure for the magnetic
resonance. Hence two symmetric anti symmetric current distributions
are observed on the right and left sides of the slit. The loop current
circulating between the halved upper and lower plates contributes the
magnetic resonant frequency. This makes the magnetic resonance frequency far away from the lower dipole frequency giving resonance at
5.2 GHz. It is observed that the electric field distribution is stronger
near the two edges of the halved dogbone plates and the magnetic field
distribution is strongest at the center of the plates. For the higher resonance, the antenna can be viewed as a parallel plate resonant RLC circuit and the thickness of the dielectric separation determines the phase
is made larger, then the phase velocity
velocity of propagation. If
will be approximately equal to the free space velocity and decrease
decreases the phase velocity and hence the wave will be more
in
bounded. Hence the radiation efficiency for the second resonance can

2290

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 62, NO. 4, APRIL 2014

Fig. 6. Reflection characteristics of the fabricated prototype.

be controlled by varying . Low values

gives low radiation efenhances the radiation efficiency for the
ficiency and increase in
second resonance.
In order to confirm the presence of anti-symmetric mode we have
studied the effect of radiation characteristics of the antenna against
stacking height and the results of such analysis are not shown here
for brevity. For an array of stacked dog bone pairs, decrease in the
stacking height reduces the attenuation constant and directive pattern
with a wide angle range is obtained [13]. In our design, decreasing the
stacking height increases the directivity of the antenna at a cost of reduced front to back ratio.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF THE ANTENNA
Experiments of the balun incorporated antenna are carried out using
HP8510C network analyzer. The antenna parameters are found to be
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
and
.
The reflection characteristics of the antenna with the balun are shown
in Fig. 6. It is observed that the antenna shows the same two resonances
as compared to the antenna without the balun. The resonances are found
to be at 2.47 GHz and 5.18 GHz. The 2:1 VSWR bandwidth is found
to be 12.3% from 2.35 GHz to 2.66 GHz for the lower resonance and
10.5% from 4.85 GHz to 5.41 GHz for second resonance which is wide
enough to cover the 2.4/5.2 GHz WLAN applications. The radiation
patterns of the antenna for the two resonances are tabulated in Fig. 7.
The radiation pattern of the lower resonance is almost equal to that
of a dipole antenna. It shows almost omni-directional radiation pattern in the H-plane and directional pattern in the E-plane. The cross
polar isolation is found to be 6 dB for the H-plane and 4.2 dB for the
E-plane. The pattern maximum is found to be tilted in the H-plane and
is directed along the endfire direction of the antenna. For higher resonance, the patterns are showing directional radiation characteristics
with a front to back ratio of 10 dB and a cross polar isolation of 23 dB
in the H-plane. The E-plane pattern shows a cross polar isolation of 20.5
dB. The simulated patterns of the antenna are also shown along with
the experimental results. The gain of the antenna is computed using the
gain comparison method. Maximum gain of the antenna is found to be
4.5 dBi for the lower resonance and 7 dBi for higher resonance. The efficiency of the antenna was measured using Wheeler cap method. The
efficiency of the antenna was found to be 93% and 89% for the first and
second resonances respectively.
Simulated surface current distributions of the antenna for the two
resonant frequencies are depicted in Fig. 8. It is observed that for the
lower resonant frequency, current variations along the X direction on
the top portion of the balun and a U-shaped anti symmetric mode along
the two sides of the slot line along the Y direction is noticed. The Y-directed surface current causes the increases cross polar power for the
first resonant frequency. The tilt in the radiation pattern is due to the

Fig. 7. Measured radiation patterns of the antenna at (a) 2.47 GHz and
(b) 5.18 GHz.

Fig. 8. Surface current distributions on the balun structure (a) 2.47 GHz and
(b) 5.18 GHz.

radiation caused due to these two current variations. But it is observed

for the second resonance that the X-directed surface current is absent
and hence the balun part is not radiating and hence the radiation for
the second resonance is solely due to the stacked dogbone part. The
is comparable to the wavelength of opground plane dimension
eration corresponding to the first resonant frequency. So a prominent
current variation is observed along the X axis in the upper part of the
ground plane in close proximity of the stacked dipole antenna. So the
ground plane in effect acts like a director and hence the copolar radiation will be slightly directed towards the balun element.
V. CONCLUSION
A novel technique for achieving dual band operation from a dog bone
dipole antenna is presented. The stacking technique is effectively utilized to generate an additional magnetic resonant mode of the antenna
and the design covers the required 2.4/5.2 GHz WLAN application
bands. The technique is relatively simple and can be easily integrated
with monolithic microwave integrated circuits and has a dimension of

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 62, NO. 4, APRIL 2014

when printed on a substrate of dielectric constant

4.4.The design exhibits relatively high radiation efficiency and gain
characteristics as compared to the existing single band and multi band
metaresonator antennas.

2291

A Novel Compact Dual-Band LTE Antenna-System for

MIMO Operation
Ibra Dioum, Aliou Diallo, Sidi Mohamed Farssi, and Cyril Luxey

REFERENCES
[1] S. J. Franson and R. W. Ziolkowski, Gigabit per second data transfer
in high-gain metamaterial structures at 60 GHz, IEEE Trans. Antennas
Propag., vol. 57, no. 10, pp. 29132925, 2009.
[2] F. Bilotti, A. Alu, and L. Vegni, Design of miniaturised metamaterial patch antennas with -negative loading, IEEE Trans. Antennas
Propag., vol. 56, no. 6, pp. 16401647, 2008.
[3] A. Erentok, D. Lee, and R. W. Ziolkowski, Numerical analysis of a
printed dipole antenna integrated with a 3D AMC block, IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 6, pp. 134136, 2007.
[4] A. Erentok, P. L. Luljak, and R. W. Ziolkowski, Characterization of a
volumetric metamaterial realization of an artificial magnetic conductor
for antenna applications, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 53, no.
1, pp. 160172, 2005.
[5] Z. H. Jiang, M. D. Gregory, and D. H. Werner, A broadband monopole
antenna enabled by an ultrathin anisotropic metamaterial coating,
IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 10, pp. 15431546, 2011.
[6] I. K. Kim and V. V. Varadan, Electrically small, millimeter wave dual
band meta-resonator antennas, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol.
48, no. 7, pp. 34583463, 2010.
[7] P. Jin and R. W. Ziolkowski, Multi-frequency, linear and circular polarised, metamaterial-inspired, near field resonant parasitic antennas,
IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 59, no. 5, pp. 14461459, 2011.
[8] J. Zhou and G. V. Eleftheriades, Dual band metamaterial inspired
small monopole antenna for WiFi applications, IET Electron. Lett.,
vol. 45, no. 22, pp. 11041106, 2009.
[9] H. Mirzaei and G. V. Eleftheriades, A compact frequency reconfigurable metamaterial inspired antenna, IEEE Antennas Wireless
Propag. Lett., vol. 10, pp. 11541157, 2011.
[10] J. Zhou, L. Zhang, G. Tuttle, T. Koschny, and C. M. Soukoulis, Negative index materials using simple short wire pairs, Phys. Rev. B., vol.
73, p. 041101R, 2006.
[11] G. Kenanakis, N. H. Shen, C. Mavidis, N. Katsarakis, M. Kafesaki, and
C. M. Soukoulis, Microwave and THz sensing using slab-pair-based
metamaterials, Phys. B, vol. 407, pp. 40704074, 2012.
[12] G. Donzelli, A. Vallecchi, F. Capolino, and A. Schuchinsky, Metamaterial made of paired planar conductors: Particle resonances, phenomena and properties, Metamaterials, vol. 3, pp. 1027, 2009.
[13] P. Baccarelli, F. Capolino, S. Paulotto, and A. B. Yakovlev, In plane
modal analysis of a metalayer formed by arrayed pairs of dogbone
shaped conductors, Metamaterials, pp. 2635, 2011.
[14] F. Capolino, Metamaterials Handbook-Theory and Phenomena of
Metamaterials. Boca Raton, FL, USA: CRC Press, 2009.
[15] C. Guclu, J. Sloan, S. Pan, and F. Capolino, Direct use of high
impedance surface as an antenna without dipole on top, IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 10, pp. 15361539, 2011.
[16] V. P. Sarin, M. S. Nishamol, R. K. Raj, A. Pradeep, P. Mohanan, and K.
Vasudevan, A compact stacked dipole antenna with directional radiation coverage for wireless communications, IEEE Antennas Wireless
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[17] B. Schuppert, Microstrip/slotline transitions: Modelling and experimental investigation, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 36, no.
8, pp. 12721782, 1988.

AbstractIn this communication, we present a novel compact dual-band

antenna-system for LTE multi-input and multi-output (MIMO) mobile
handsets. The radiators consist of 3D Inverted-F- Antennas (IFAs) folded
on the non-metalized part of the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and
operating in the LTE 700 MHz band. A parasitic radiating element is
also attached to the IFAs to operate in the LTE 2.52.7 GHz band. Two
) for MIMO
antennas are placed on a realistic PCB (100 40
operation. Various antenna configurations are tested when moving their
position on the PCB. Based on the highest port-to-port isolation criterion,
two configurations are adopted and their performances are compared.
Both simulated and measured results are shown to illustrate the MIMO
capabilities of the proposed structures.
Index TermsChannel capacity, diversity, dual-band antennas, inverted-F antennas (IFAs), isolation, multiple input multiple output
(MIMO), small antenna.

I. INTRODUCTION
Mobile communications are more and more daily used. The 4G long
term evolution (LTE) is the next planned standard expected to provide
high data rate [1]. This standard is set to operate in different frequency
bands from 400 MHz to 4 GHz [2] with flexible channel bandwidth
from 1.25 to 20 MHz to support FDD/TDD duplexing [1]. It has been
drafted to be able to support multi-input multi-output (MIMO) schemes
[2]. MIMO technology operates by using the spatial and/or polarization
proprieties of the multipath propagation channel [3]. It requires multiple antennas at the transmitter and the receiver side of the wireless
link.
However, the trend in modern communications is still the miniaturization where thin and slim handset shapes are making difficult
the integration of several antennas [4], [5]. In addition, it is well
known that closely spaced antennas suffer from high spatial correlation, strong electromagnetic coupling and low isolation if no smart
technique is used when designing those radiators [6]. This last effect reduces the degrees of freedom of the MIMO antenna array and
therefore leads to poor radiation efficiency and high signal correlation
between the ports. Consequently, capacity performance of the system
Manuscript received May 05, 2013; revised November 17, 2013; accepted
January 13, 2014. Date of publication January 17, 2014; date of current version
April 03, 2014.
I. Dioum is with the LEAT-CNRS, UMR 7248, University Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Campus Sophi@tech Btiment Forum, 06903 Sophia Antipolis Cedex,
France and also with LIRT, Polytechnic High School, Cheikh Anta Diop University, BP 15915 Dakar Fann, Dakar, Senegal (e-mail: ibra.dioum@unice.fr,
ibra.dioum@ucad.sn ).
A. Diallo is with the LEAT-CNRS, UMR 7248, University Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Campus Sophi@tech Btiment Forum, 06903 Sophia Antipolis Cedex,
France.
S. M. Farssi is with LIRT, Polytechnic High School, Cheikh Anta Diop University, BP 15915 Dakar Fann, Dakar, Senegal.
C. Luxey is with EpOC, University Nice-Sophia Antipolis, 06560 Valbonne,
France and also with IUF, Institut Universitaire de France, 75005 Paris, France
and the IUT Nice Cte dAzur, Site de Sophia-Antipolis, 06560 Valbonne,
France (e-mail:cyril.luxey@unice.fr).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this communication are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2014.2301151

0018-926X 2014 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.