Mutual Coupling Reduction in Microstrip Array Antenna using a Novel Compact Electromagnetic Band-Gap Structure

In this paper, a novel stacked electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) structure with fork split (FS) into the forklike patch is presented. Simulation model of a monopole probe antenna is used to analyze the band-gap features. The period of the EBG lattice is approximately 3.9%λ0 at the desired band gap frequency, resulting in the most compact EBG lattice ever achieved. Simulation results by FE and FDTD methods have confirmed that by introducing FS into the fork-like patch, the size of EBG cell compared with the conventional fork-like structure is reduced by 32%. Also, to investigate the novel EBG structure, a two element fractal microstrip antenna array inserted in the new EBG structure has been simulated, showing a 10.2 dB mutual coupling reduction

Keywords:

Electromagnetic band-gap (EBG) structure , finite- difference time domain (FDTD) and finite element (FE) methods , microstrip antenna arrays , mutual coupling , surface wave.