STUDIES ON PLANAR ANTENNAS UTILIZING PATTERN DIVERSITY FOR MIMO WIRELESS APPLICATIONS

Abstract

Recent developments in wireless communications have shown that by using multiple antenna elements at both transmitter and the receiver, it is possible to substantially increase the capacity in a wireless communication system without increasing the transmission power and bandwidth. This system with multiple antenna elements at both link-ends is termed the MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) system. The design of multiple antennas for handheld devices is a challenging task as it is very difficult to obtain a high degree of isolation between multiple antennas given the increasingly small dimensions of modern wireless terminals. Therefore novel antenna solutions need to be provided before MIMO technology can successfully be implemented on compact terminals. This dissertation aims to provide novel antenna solutions for the same.