Parasitically coupled 16-port massive MIMO antenna for mmWave applications

This article presents a 16-port compact (26.2 × 79 × 0.508 mm[Formula: see text]) massive MIMO antenna for mmWave applications. The proposed antenna consists of five triangular-shaped parasitic elements, one triangular-shaped feed-line fed element, and impedance matching network on the radiating plane, whereas defected ground and stubs are used on the ground plane. A systematic study is performed to select an optimal single element antenna (design) among design-1, design-2, design-3 an design-4. Thereafter, a 16-port massive MIMO antenna is implemented using a replica of a single element with modified ground plane structure. The proposed antenna resonates at 40 GHz frequency in mmWave band (37.5-49 GHz) with a 40 dB peak return loss. According to 3GPP bands n259 (39.5-43.5 GHz), n260 (37-40 GHz) and n262 (47.2-48.2 GHz), the resonating band (37.5-49 GHz) of the proposed antenna is part of the upper band of the mmWave spectrum and contains some of the most crucial licensed 5G and beyond wireless communications bands such as 39 GHz, 41 GHz and 47 GHz. Moreover, the proposed antenna achieves a high antenna gain of 17.9 dB and 17.2 dB at 39 GHz and 41 GHz, respectively. In addition, the specific absorption rate analysis of the proposed antenna is conducted by placing the antenna on the right hand of a human male model and 0.045 W/kg of SAR value at 40 GHz is achieved for the proposed antenna. An equivalent circuit of the intended antenna is proposed and simulated using the ADS tool and validated with the results simulated using HFSS.