A meander shaped defected ground structure (DGS) for reduction of mutual coupling between microstrip antennas

In this paper, a compact meander shaped defected ground structure (DGS) is applied to reduce the mutual coupling between elements of microstrip antenna array with 0.5 λ0 elements spacing. The proposed antenna array consists of two elements. Four meander shaped slots in the ground plane are used between elements to reduce the coupling between the array elements. The antenna is simulated using CST microwave studio software, fabricated on FR4 substrate with dielectric constant of 4.3 and thickness of 1.6 mm by etching the ground plane of the microstrip antenna and measured. The results show that a reduction in mutual coupling from -23 dB to -52 dB is obtained between elements at the operation frequency of the antenna array. The gain is increased by 0.6 dBi. A small shift in operating frequency from 4.74 to 4.8 GHz is introduced The measurement results prove the high efficiency of this configuration.