AbstractFor the requirements of low mutual-coupling MIMO antennas for WLAN, a new complementary split-ring resonator (CSRR) unit cell is introduced in this paper. A microstrip-fed Vivaldi antenna array is designed for WLAN applications, where compact triple-band gap-complementary split-ring resonator unit cells are loaded between two antennas to examine the effect of unit cells on the rate of mutual-coupling reduction. By inserting the CSRR, the final design offered an improvement in decoupling by 8.5, 10.5, and 18 dB at 3.65, 4.9, and 5.8 GHz, respectively, compared with the reference antenna. By suppressing surface waves, antenna gain and front-to-back ratio are improved.