The integration of material science into wireless communication has facilitated the development of textile-based antennas, particularly for wearable 5 G and next-generation communication systems, including military Défense applications. This paper presents a multi-band, natural fabric-based MIMO antenna featuring a Lorentz-shaped fractal structure with elliptical radiating elements. The antenna is fabricated using natural cotton fabric ( \(\varepsilon _r = 1.6\) ) as the substrate, ensuring flexibility, lightweight properties, and suitability for wearable applications. It is created and modelled with the use of CST Microwave Studio Suite, resonating at 5.1, 8.7, 10.3, 10.6, 13.8, 18.3, 20.7, and 22.3 GHz, which makes it perfect for 5 G and advanced wireless networks. The antenna employs microstrip line feeding and maintains robust MIMO functionality, with an envelope correlation coefficient (ECC) of ≤ 0.0027, ensuring minimal signal interference. Additionally, the diversity gain (DG) exceeds 9.99 dB (9.9946 dB), and the antenna achieves strong isolation of ≤ − 37 dB. Unlike conventional rigid antennas, the proposed design does not incorporate a defected ground structure (DGS), yet it ensures stable gain and consistent performance across multiple frequency bands. A comparative analysis with various textile-based antennas highlights its superior compactness, flexibility, and isolation performance. These features establish the antenna as an optimistic candidate for wearable, rapid pace of data, and energy-efficient communication systems for 5 G and beyond.
