Gain Enhancement and Mutual Coupling Reduction Using ZIM Metamaterial in MIMO Array Antennas

In this paper, a new application of Zero-Index Metamaterial (ZIM) structure is proposed for the gain enhancement and Mutual Coupling Reduction of the antenna array. In the proposed design, we used three Microstrip Yagi-Uda antennas which are a short distance away and ZIM substrate. By inserting the ZIM substrate and removing the Microstrip Yagi-Uda antenna directors, the final design offered an improvement in gain by 3dB and in decoupling by 5-8 dB at 4-8.5 GHz. Compression of the proposed structure, 72% bandwidth, low cost made this antenna suitable for various applications such as MIMO systems specifically in C-band long-range radio communications.