Reduction of Mutual Coupling Between Closely-Packed Antenna Elements

A simple ground plane structure that can reduce mutual coupling between closely-packed antenna elements is proposed and studied. The structure consists of a slitted pattern, without via´s, etched onto a single ground plane and it is therefore low cost and straightforward to fabricate. It is found that isolations of more than -20 dB can be achieved between two parallel individual planar inverted-F antennas (PIFAs) sharing a common ground plane, with inter-antenna spacing (center to center) of 0.116 lambda_o and ground plane size 0.331lambda_o ². At 2.31 GHz it is demonstrated that this translates into an edge to edge separation between antennas of just 10 mm. Similarly the structure can be applied to reduce mutual coupling between three or four radiating elements. In addition the mutual coupling between half wavelength patches and monopoles can also be reduced with the aid of the proposed ground plane structure. Results of parametric studies are also given in this paper. Both simulation and measurement results are used to confirm the suppression of mutual coupling between closely-packed antenna elements with our slitted ground plane.