A novel connected PIFA array with MIMO configuration for 5G mobile applications

A novel connected printed inverted-F antenna (PIFA) array with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) configuration is presented. The array is designed to operate at the 28 GHz band for 5G mobile applications. It consists of 4-element MIMO antenna system where each element includes 8 PIFA antennas forming a connected antenna array. A 1×8 power divider/combiner in the form of tapered T-junction is used to excite that array. The array operates at 28 GHz with 10 dB bandwidth of 1 GHz from 27.5 to 28.5 GHz. The proposed design is modeled on RO-4350B with the height of 0.76 mm and dielectric constant of 3.48. The dimensions of the substrate are 130×68×0.76 mm
³
, which matches the dimensions of modern smart phones. The proposed design is simple in structure, low profile and has a compact size that is suitable for mobile handsets.