On the mutual coupling of UWB antenna arrays using EBG layers

A method of improving the radiation characteristics of ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna arrays using electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) layer is presented. The proposed two-element array consists of two identical UWB antennas with a planar EBG layer in the middle. Using this EBG layer between the two UWB antenna elements results in improving the return loss, isolation, gain and sidelobe levels (SLL) across the UWB frequency range especially in the lower band (3.1-8GHz). The realized gain is increased by almost 2dB while the SLL is reduced by 3dB in E-plane and 9dB in H-plane. All simulation results are presented and discussed.