Single RF MIMO Systems: Exploiting the Capabilities of Parasitic Antennas

Despite the well known benefits of Multiple Input - Multiple Output (MIMO) systems, their remarkable implementation complexity limits the wide application to modern transceiver architectures. In order to simplify the inclusion of MIMO technology in mobile devices, this paper studies the capabilities of parasitic antenna structures on supporting MIMO transmission. In contrast to conventional antenna arrays the proposed MIMO architecture utilizes only a single radio - frequency chain, which reduces dramatically the implementation complexity and cost. The results show that the proposed MIMO architecture is able to achieve even better performance as compared to more complex MIMO systems with typical antenna arrays.