Objectives  In order to solve the installation space limitations of shipboard communication devices and the low communication efficiency of shipborne antennas due to interference by signals from other equipment, this paper proposes a miniaturized and high-isolation compact MIMO antenna that can cover a wide frequency band.

Methods The antenna unit is based on an elliptical patch that expands into the final octagonal structure by rotational translation; the four units are placed orthogonally on the dielectric substrate to improve the data transmission rate and channel capacity of the antenna; and adding a square metal patch to the back of the antenna improves the isolation between antenna units, while the overall size of the antenna is only 32 mm×32 mm.

Results  The results show that the impedance bandwidth of S11 ≤ −10 dB is measured as 3.4–10 GHz; the S31 of the antenna drops from about −15 dB to less than −22 dB with a lowest point of −46 dB, improving isolation by 31 dB; and the antenna envelope correlation coefficient is less than 0.05, the diversity gain is greater than 9.7 dB and the highest gain of the antenna can reach 4.5 dBi.

Conclusions On the basis of miniaturization, the MIMO antenna can cover a wide frequency band and has a high degree of isolation, strong anti-interference ability and high channel capacity, enabling it to be widely used in shipborne wireless communication equipment.