This paper is aimed at studying the impacts of mutual coupling, matching networks, and polarization of antennas on performances of Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems employing Spatial Multiplexing (SM). In particular, the uncoded average Bit Error Rate (BER) of MIMO systems is investigated. An accurate signal analysis framework based on circuit network parameters is presented to describe the transmit/receive characteristics of the matched/unmatched antenna array. The studied arrays

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... nsist of matched/unmatched compact copolarization and polarization diversity antenna array. Monte-Carlo numerical simulations are used to study the BER performances of the SM MIMO systems using maximum-likelihood and/or zero-forcing detection schemes. The simulation results demonstrate that the use of matching networks can improve the BER performance of SM MIMO systems significantly, and the BER performance deterioration due to antenna orientation randomness can be compensated by use of polarization diversity antenna arrays.