High-Gain Eight-Port Dual-Polarized Magneto- Electric Dipole MIMO Antenna Array for 5G Small-Cell Base Station Applications

This paper presents a dual-polarized Magneto Electric (ME) Dipole Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) array antenna for the 5G Sub 6 GHz Small-cell Base Station (SBS) application. The design evolution of the proposed antenna element involves a modified petal-shaped radiating element operating from 2 GHz to 5.4 GHz. The wideband performance of the proposed antenna is achieved through the Γ-shaped feeding structure, which comprises a transmission line and a coupling strip, and is facilitated by its orthogonal placement, thereby contributing to polarization diversity. The complete antenna structure is made with copper, which realizes high gain without any dielectric loss. A rectangular, box-shaped reflector has been incorporated in the proposed design to enhance directivity and maintain stable radiation. The proposed antenna obtains the overall impedance bandwidth and gain of 91.9% (2–5.4 GHz) and 10.6 dB; this frequency range covers 4G and 5G (N76/N77/N78) bands. Finally, the antenna has been transformed into a 2 × 2 array to enhance the overall performance, in terms of gain of about 16.5 dB.