Capacity Reconfigurable Origami Enabled MIMO Antenna

Abstract

In this work, a capacity reconfigurable Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna is proposed. The goal is to allow the capacity of a MIMO communication channel to be adjusted in real time to varying data rate, gain, and space requirements. As a proof-of-concept, an eight element MIMO antenna is created using microstrip dipoles operating at 2.4 GHz. To reduce mutual coupling, the elements have their centers co-aligned and are orthogonally oriented with respect to one another. The antenna is implemented on a 3D printed modified scissor lift mechanism. This robust mechanism allows the channel capacity to be varied as a function of inter-element spacing. Based on the preliminary results using the proposed origami topology, the capacity can vary up to 50% while the gain can vary up to 10% by changing the inter-element spacing.