Removing the effect of antenna matching in isolation analyses using the concept of electromagnetic isolation

Isolation between antennas in a multiantenna terminal plays an important role in the performance analysis of wireless systems. When comparing different methods for increasing isolation between the antennas, it is important to note that isolation depends strongly on antenna matching. The effect of matching on isolation can be removed by numerically matching two antennas simultaneously. The resulting isolation is called electromagnetic isolation and it gives the worst-case isolation between the antennas. An example of the application of this concept to the analysis of ground plane slots is presented. It is shown that the phase information in scattering and impedance matrices is essential to obtain reliable values of the electromagnetic isolation.