2554 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 20, NO.

12, DECEMBER 2021

Low-Profile Wideband Four-Corner-Fed Square

Patch Antenna for 5G MIMO Mobile
Antenna Application
Kin-Lu Wong , Fellow, IEEE, Miao-Fang Jian, Student Member, IEEE, and Wei-Yu Li, Member, IEEE

Abstract—A low-profile wideband four-corner-fed square patch MIMO application in 6.0–8.5 GHz [4], [5] or a high profile of
antenna for fifth-generation (5G) multiple-input–multiple-output 10 mm (about 0.14 λ at the center frequency) for fifth-generation
(MIMO) mobile antenna application is presented. The proposed (5G) sub-6 GHz MIMO application in 3.3–5.0 GHz [6]. Such
antenna uses a single square patch to generate four uncorrelated
waves over a wide band to cover 3.3–4.2 GHz (5G N77 band) with a high-profile four-port patch antennas are suitable for MIMO
low profile of 2.4 mm (0.03 λ at 3.75 GHz). Wideband operation is access-point applications, but not attractive for low-profile mo-
obtained by generating the half-patch TM11 mode and the quarter- bile antenna applications.
patch TM1/2,1/2 mode for each port. The half-patch TM11 mode is For applying the low-profile patch antenna to generate four
created by embedding two diagonal linear slots in the square patch. uncorrelated radiating waves, the designs of the four-element
By further placing shorting pins along the patch’s two centerlines, a
square two-edge-shorted quarter-patch for each port to support the patch antenna with four separate patch radiators have been
quarter-patch TM1/2,1/2 mode is created, which combines with the reported, such as in [7]–[9]. With required spacing between the
half-patch TM11 mode to form a wide operating band. Details of the four separate patch radiators; however, the four-element patch
proposed antenna including the experimental results are presented. antenna is limited to achieve a compact structure.
Index Terms—5G multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) It is also shown that it is promising to integrate four patch
antennas, four-port single-patch antennas, mobile antennas, radiators together into a compact structure, so that there is no
TM1/2,1/2 modes, TM11 modes. spacing between nearby patch radiators [10]. The integrated four
patch radiators generate four uncorrelated waves for 2.4/5.8 GHz
I. INTRODUCTION wireless local area network MIMO application [10]. However,
the antenna shows a narrow bandwidth of only about 4.1%
HE low-profile patch antenna has the attractive feature of
T having a back ground plane [1], thereby making it suitable
to be directly placed on metal objects for practical applications.
(2.4–2.5 GHz) for its low-band operation.
To achieve the wideband operation for mobile antenna ap-
plication, the four-antenna module [11] is recently reported to
However, owing to its low profile and back ground plane, the cover 5G N77 band of 3.3–4.2 GHz, based on the widely used
patch antenna generally has a narrow-band characteristic. It design guideline of –6 dB (3:1 VSWR) impedance matching for
hence has been an interesting research topic for the low-profile mobile antennas. The four-antenna module has a low profile
patch antenna to achieve wideband operation [2]. Recently, for of 2 mm and a diameter of only 30.6 mm (about 0.38 λ at
the 4 × 4 multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) application 3.75 GHz). However, the back ground plane of the module has
[3], the four-port patch antenna with a single patch to generate a same size as the top patch, which makes the back ground
four uncorrelated waves over a wide band has been shown to plane very likely to be an efficient radiator as well [11], [12].
be applicable [4]–[6]. Such wideband four-port single-patch The antenna performance is therefore greatly affected when the
antennas are attractive owing to their colocated radiators to four-antenna module is directly placed on a large metal surface.
achieve a compact structure. However, the reported four-port From the results of recent studies [7]–[12], it is still an open
single-patch antennas have a high profile of about 15.7 mm research issue for the low-profile four-port patch antenna to have
(about 0.38 λ at the center frequency) for the ultrawideband a compact structure to generate four uncorrelated waves over a
wide band and suitable for on-metal applications.
Manuscript received September 14, 2021; accepted October 10, 2021. Date In this letter, a low-profile wideband four-corner-fed patch
of publication October 14, 2021; date of current version December 20, 2021.
This work was supported in part by the Ministry of Science and Technology, antenna for 5G MIMO mobile antenna application is presented.
Taiwan, under Grant MOST 110-2224-E-110-001 and Grant 109-2221-E-110- The antenna uses a single square patch to generate four un-
059. (Corresponding author: Kin-Lu Wong.) correlated waves to cover 3.3–4.2 GHz (5G N77 band) with
Kin-Lu Wong and Miao-Fang Jian are with the Department of Electri-
cal Engineering, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 80424, Taiwan a low profile of 2.4 mm (0.03 λ at 3.75 GHz). The wideband
(e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]). operation is obtained by embedding two diagonal linear slots in
Wei-Yu Li is with the Information and Communications Research Laborato- the square patch and placing shorting pins along the patch’s two
ries, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu 31057, Taiwan (e-mail:
[email protected]). centerlines. In this case, the antenna’s half-patch TM11 mode
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2021.3119753 and quarter-patch TM1/21/2 mode for each port are generated to

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WONG et al.: LOW-PROFILE WIDEBAND FOUR-CORNER-FED SQUARE PATCH ANTENNA FOR 5G MIMO MOBILE ANTENNA APPLICATION 2555

Fig. 2. Resonant patch regions. (a) Half-patch TM11 mode. (b) Quarter-patch
TM1/21/2 mode. (c) Above two resonant modes of Port 1 in the proposed
antenna. The length AB’ (AD’) is one-half of the length AB (AD).

Fig. 1. Low-profile wideband four-corner-fed square patch MIMO antenna.

form a wide band covering 3.3–4.2 GHz. Also, the four waves
generated by the four ports show very small correlation and are
suitable for MIMO applications. Details of the proposed antenna
are presented. Fig. 3. (a) Case without two diagonal linear slots and the shorting pins along
two center lines (Case A). (b) Case with two diagonal linear slots only (Case B).
(c) Case with the shorting pins only (Case C).
II. FOUR-PORT SQUARE-PATCH MIMO ANTENNA
Fig. 1 shows the proposed antenna covering 3.3–4.2 GHz for
5G applications. The four ports (Ports 1–4) are placed at four shorted, the TM1/21/2 mode excitation for each port is therefore
corners (Points A, B, C, and D) of the square patch with a size supported.
of 40 × 40 mm (0.5 λ × 0.5 λ at 3.75 GHz) and a low profile In addition, since the shorting pins are placed along the patch’s
of 2.4 mm (0.03 λ at 3.75 GHz) above the back ground plane of centerlines, which is along the zero electric field of the half-patch
size 50 × 50 mm. Note that the length of the back ground plane TM11 mode, the two resonant modes can both be excited at the
is larger than 0.5 λ at the lowest operating frequency 3.3 GHz, same time. In addition, owing to the side-edge length of the
so that the back ground plane will not be an efficient radiator in resonant region for the quarter-patch TM1/21/2 mode [see the
the desired operating band. This can make the proposed antenna resonant patch region of Port 1 in Fig. 2(b)] being about one-half
suitable for on-metal object applications. of that for the half-patch TM11 mode, the resonant frequencies
The antenna height 2.4 mm includes a 0.4 mm thick FR4 of the two resonant modes will be close to each other. The two
substrate with the square patch printed thereon and a 2.0 mm resonant modes can thus be excited at close frequencies to form
thick air substrate. The effective relative permittivity of the a wide operating band. For Port 1, the combined resonant patch
antenna substrate between the square patch and the back ground regions of the two resonant modes are shown in Fig. 2(c). For
plane is therefore about 1.15 only, close to unity. Although the Ports 2–4, their corresponding resonant patch regions of the two
close-to-unity relative permittivity will increase the required resonant modes are similar to Port 1 illustrated in Fig. 2.
patch size, the excited resonant modes can have a wider band- Also note that a quarter-ring gap of radius 5.5 mm and width
width [13]. Also note that the square patch size in the proposed 0.2 mm is embedded around each probe feed and connected with
design is still only 0.5 λ × 0.5 λ at 3.75 GHz. the diagonal linear slot. The quarter-ring gap can be considered
For the wideband operation, the half-patch TM11 mode and to be a part of the diagonal linear slot to create the right-triangular
quarter-patch TM1/21/2 mode are generated for each port. To half-patch described above. In this case, the four probe feeds at
create the resonant region of the half-patch TM11 mode for each the four patch corners can coexist with the two diagonal linear
port, two diagonal linear slots of width 1 mm are embedded in the slots in the square patch.
square patch. In this case, a right-triangular resonant half-patch Furthermore, since the quarter-ring gap surrounds the probe
for each port can be formed. For example, for Port 1, it will excite feed at the patch corner, it can contribute additional capacitive
the right-triangular half-patch ABD, whose patch size is about reactance to the input impedance of the probe feed. This provides
one-half of the square patch [see the resonant patch region of Port as a means to adjust the impedance matching of each probe feed
1 in Fig. 2(a)]. For Ports 2–4, they will excite the corresponding at the patch corner.
half-patches ABC, BCD, and ADC. To further address the operating principle, the case without
For the quarter-patch TM1/21/2 mode, the corresponding two diagonal linear slots and the shorting pins along two cen-
resonant region for each port is formed by placing the shorting terlines (denoted as Case A), the case with two diagonal linear
pins along two centerlines of the square patch. In this case, four slots only (Case B), and the case with the shorting pins only
quarter-patch regions separated by the shorting pins are created (Case C) shown in Fig. 3 are studied. Fig. 4 shows the simulated
for Ports 1–4. Since two edges of each quarter-patch region are S parameters of Port 1 in the proposed design, Case A, Case B,

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2556 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 20, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2021

Fig. 6. Simulated electric field distribution of Port 1 excitation in the proposed

antenna; Other ports are terminated to 50 Ω. (a) 3.35 GHz. (b) 3.85 GHz. The
electric field is in the plane centered between the square patch and ground plane
(1.2 mm to the square patch).

Fig. 4. Simulated S parameters of Port 1 in (a) the proposed antenna.

(b) Case A. (c) Case B. (d) Case C.
square patch and ground plane (1.2 mm below the square patch)
are shown. The white dots in the figure are at the locations of the
shorting pins. It confirms that the resonant mode at 3.35 GHz
is the TM1/21/2 mode resonated in the quarter-patch containing
Port 1 [see Fig. 6(a)]. On the other hand, the resonant mode at
3.85 GHz is the TM11 mode resonated in the right-triangular
half-patch with Port 1 at the triangular tip [see Fig. 6(b)].
It is also seen from the results of Case A in Fig. 4(b), for
Port 1 excitation, there are no clear resonant mode excited with
good impedance matching in 3.3–4.2 GHz. While for Port 1
excitation in Case B (two diagonal linear slots embedded in
Case A), a resonant mode with good impedance matching at
about 4.0 GHz is excited [see Fig. 4(c)]. This resonant mode
Fig. 5. Simulated surface current distribution of Port 1 in the proposed antenna. occurs at the frequencies close to the half-patch TM11 mode at
Other ports are terminated to 50 Ω. (a) 3.35 GHz. (b) 3.85 GHz.
about 3.85 GHz in the proposed antenna [see Fig. 4(a)].
For Case C (shorting pins added in Case A), it is seen that
a resonant mode at about 3.7 GHz is generated for Port 1
and Case C. The simulation tool of High Frequency Structure excitation [see Fig. 4(d)]. This resonant mode also occurs at
Simulator (HFSS) [14] is applied. Owing to the symmetric close frequencies to the quarter-patch TM1/21/2 mode excited
structure, Ports 2–4 have same results as Port 1. Therefore, only at 3.35 GHz in the proposed antenna. Owing to the shorting pins
the results of Port 1 are shown. In Fig. 4(a), the S11 is better than placed along the zero electric field of the half-patch TM11 mode,
–6 dB (3:1 VSWR) in 3.3–4.2 GHz (the desired band shown small effects on the excitation of the two resonant modes are
in color in the figure). The S12 (= S14 , owing to symmetric obtained when both the diagonal linear slots and the shorting
structure) and S13 are less than –10 dB in the operating band. pins are both added in Case A to form the proposed antenna.
The obtained S parameters are acceptable for mobile antenna Therefore, the two resonant modes can both be generated in the
applications [10]–[12], [15]–[17]. proposed antenna to form a wide band covering 3.3–4.2 GHz
The wide operating band is formed by two resonant modes for 5G MIMO application.
occurred at about 3.35 and 3.85 GHz. Their simulated surface
current distributions of Port 1 excitation are shown in Fig. 5.
At 3.35 GHz, the surface currents are generally confined in the
quarter-patch containing Port 1 and resonate along two orthog- III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
onal edges of the quarter-patch [see Fig. 5(a)]. For the results The fabricated prototype is shown in Fig. 7. The measured
at 3.85 GHz [see Fig. 5(b)], the surface currents are generally reflection and transmission coefficients of Ports 1–4 in the fab-
excited inside the right-triangular half-patch with Port 1 at the ricated prototype are presented in Fig. 8. The simulated results of
triangular tip and resonate along two orthogonal edges of the Port 1 are shown for comparison. The measured data fairly agree
half-patch. The two resonant modes are therefore identified in with the simulated results. In the desired 3.3–4.2 GHz band,
this study as the quarter-patch TM1/21/2 mode and the half-patch the measured reflection coefficients of Ports 1–4 in Fig. 8(a)
TM11 mode, respectively [1]. are better than –6 dB, the widely used design specification
The corresponding simulated electric field distributions of for mobile antenna applications. The measured transmission
Port 1 excitation at 3.35 and 3.85 GHz are shown in Fig. 6. Note coefficients shown in Fig. 8(b) are also seen to be lower than
that the electric field results in the plane centered between the –10 dB in 3.3–4.2 GHz.

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WONG et al.: LOW-PROFILE WIDEBAND FOUR-CORNER-FED SQUARE PATCH ANTENNA FOR 5G MIMO MOBILE ANTENNA APPLICATION 2557

Fig. 10. (a) Measured antenna efficiency of Ports 1–4. (b) Calculated ECCs
using the measured radiation patterns.

two symmetric orthogonal resonances. This radiation character-

istic is considered to be advantageous for MIMO applications,
Fig. 7. Fabricated prototype of the proposed antenna.
because better multipath scattering is expected to be obtained
for the antenna with comparable radiation in two orthogonal
directions.
Fig. 10(a) shows the measured antenna efficiency of Ports 1–4
in the fabricated prototype. The measured antenna efficiency
is smoothly varied and is about 42%–61% in the desired wide
band of 3.3–4.2 GHz, which also fairly agrees with the simulated
result included in the figure.
Based on the measured far-field radiation patterns [18], [19],
the calculated envelope correlation coefficients (ECCs) are
shown in Fig. 10(b). Note that the ECCij in the figure indicates
Fig. 8. (a) Measured reflection coefficients. (b) Transmission coefficients of the ECC result of the two generated waves of Ports i and j. The
Ports 1–4 in the fabricated prototype.
measured ECCs are lower than 0.04 in 3.3–4.2 GHz. This agrees
with the prediction of the HFSS [14] simulated ECC included
in the figure.
Also, in addition to the radiation pattern of Port 1 shown
in Fig. 9, the simulated radiation patterns of Ports 2, 3, and
4, which are not shown here for brevity, are also studied. For
Port 1, its radiation patterns at 3.35 and 3.85 GHz are tilted
toward the third quadrant (x < 0, y < 0; the quadrant where
Port 1 is located, see the coordinates shown in Fig. 9). While for
Ports 2–4, their radiation patterns are respectively tilted toward
the fourth quadrant (x > 0, y < 0), the first quadrant (x > 0, y >
0), and the second quadrant (x < 0, y > 0). That is, the radiation
patterns of Ports 1–4 are tilted toward four different quadrants.
This leads to low correlation of the four radiating waves and the
low ECC obtained. This characteristic will be good for MIMO
applications.
IV. CONCLUSION
Fig. 9. Measured and simulated radiation patterns of Port 1. (a) 3.35 GHz. A low-profile wideband four-port square patch antenna suit-
(b) 3.85 GHz. able for the 5G MIMO mobile antenna application has been
proposed. The wideband operation for the four ports covering
5G N77 band of 3.3–4.2 GHz is obtained by exciting their cor-
The antenna’s radiation performance is measured in a far-field responding half-patch TM11 mode and quarter-patch TM1/21/2
anechoic chamber with a standard horn antenna used for cali- mode of the square patch antenna, which has a low profile of
bration. The measured and simulated radiation patterns of Port 1 2.4 mm only (0.03 λ at 3.75 GHz). The antenna structure and
are plotted in Fig. 9. The radiation patterns at 3.35 and 3.85 GHz operating principle have been addressed. Experimental results
in two vertical-elevation xz and yz planes are presented. In the of the fabricated prototype have been shown to verify the sim-
radiation patterns, the Eθ and Eφ components are seen to be ulation study. The proposed four-port patch antenna will be
comparable. This behavior is reasonable, since both the excited suitable for 5G MIMO mobile antenna applications, especially
half-patch TM11 and quarter-patch TM1/21/2 modes are with for on-metal object applications.

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2558 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 20, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2021

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