This letter addresses a new approach to improve the gain and isolation of a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) antenna. A C-shaped printed antenna with both ends terminated by a small rectangular section is designed as the basic antenna element for a 2 element MIMO antenna of size 0.8λ×0.67λ×0.04λ (λ, corresponding to lowest operating frequency) which operates over the X band with peak gain of 3 dBi. By introducing a double layered frequency selective surface (FSS) of unit cell dimension 0.2λ×0.2λ×0.0375λ between the two antenna elements as an isolation wall and additionally by placing a 5×3 array of FSS geometry as a reflector below the antenna, the isolation and gain of the two element MIMO antenna are improved by 37 dB and 3 dBi, respectively. The proposed FSS loaded MIMO antenna provides very high isolation about -51 dB (measured) and a very low envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) of 0.000177282 (simulated) using far field approach and 0.000000033414 (calculated measured) using scattering (S) parameter approach. Further MIMO parameters like diversity gain (DG), total active reflection coefficient (TARC), mean effective gain (MEG) and channel capacity loss (CCL) have been evaluated. The radiation pattern is unidirectional in nature with a peak gain about 6 dBi. The letter also presents detailed design guidelines for the proposed FSS loaded MIMO antenna along with their verifications for Ku and K bands. The proposed structure can also be scaled up to a 4 element MIMO antenna.
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