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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Today a wide variety of radio frequency (RF) applications are present which

are increasing with each passing year. Among the three major application areas such

as consumer, military and space technology, the consumer applications are the most

challenging for a radio frequency engineer [27], [100]. It is because, for the

commercial success of these applications not only should the terminal be integrated

but should also include multiple number of functionalities and applications [101],

[160]. Usually wireless networks are used because of their fast deployment and their

capabilities to give connectivity to heterogeneous services operated with different

mobile devices such as smart phones, laptops and PDAs [132]. The rising trend of

developing multifunctional communication devices continuously poses the

challenging task of designing multiband/broadband antennas on antenna engineers.

Hence microstrip patch antenna is playing an important role for modern

communication systems [98], [143]. Microstrip patch antennas are widely preferred

for wireless communication applications such as mobile satellite communications,

direct broadcast satellite services, global positioning systems and medical

hyperthermia usage, that typically require antennas with small size, light weight, low

profile, low cost, easy to fabricate and easy to integrate with feed networks [16], [43],

[44], [81]. The microstrip antenna consists of a radiating patch on one side of a

dielectric slab and a ground plane on the other side. This radiating patch may be

triangular, rectangular, elliptical, circular, square, and any other geometry [16], [70].

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Substrate plays an important role in antenna design, mainly for providing mechanical

strength to antenna. Energy storage effect of substrates is also responsible for

degraded electrical properties of antenna as the surface waves produced on the

dielectric extract a part of total power available for direct radiation [179]. Therefore

an intelligent decision has to be taken while selecting substrate to satisfy both

electrical and mechanical requirements for the antenna [166]. The metallic strip

between the ground and atmosphere is then used to guide the radio frequency or

signal. Several applications of microstrip antenna are rendered by their narrow

bandwidth, typically about 5% bandwidth with respect to their center frequency.

There are numerous and well known techniques to improve the bandwidth of antenna,

including increase of the substrate thickness, the use of several impedance matching

and feeding techniques, the use of multiple number of resonators, the use of a low

dielectric substrate and the use of slot antenna structure [174]. Slot antennas exhibit

wider bandwidth, lower dispersion and low radiation loss. They also provide easy

means of parallel and series connection of active and passive elements that are

required for improving the impedance matching and gain [124], [151]. The growth of

the telecommunication systems is driving the engineering efforts to develop

multiband and compact systems [34], [129]. This has started antenna research in many

directions, one of which is by using fractal shaped antenna elements.

1.1 Fractal Antennas

The term fractal means broken or irregular fragments, were first defined by

Mandelbrot in 1975, to describe complex structures that possess an inherent self-

similarity or self-affinity in their geometrical structures. A fractal is a fragmented

structure that can be subdivided in many parts, each of which is a small copy of the

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whole [89]. There are several mathematical geometries that are fractals such as

Kochs snowflake, Sierpinski gasket, Cantors comb, the Lorenz attractor, the

Mandelbrot set etc. [46]. Fractals also describe many real-world objects, such as

mountains, turbulence, clouds and coast lines that do not correspond to simple

geometric structures. Several naturally occurring phenomena such as lightning are

better analyzed with the aid of fractals. Most of these geometries are infinitely sub-

divisible, with each division a copy of the parent. The generating process of each

geometry obeys the same rule and begins with an initiator and a generator. The

iteration can continue infinitely, thus forming a shape with a finite boundary but of

infinite area or length. This compactness property is highly desirable in various

antenna applications [6], [161].

The main advantages of fractal antenna over conventional antenna designs are

its reduced size and multiband operation. Due to fractal loading present in this type of

antennas, inductance and capacitance are added without the use of additional

components [162]. Fractal antenna has useful applications in cellular telephone and

microwave communications. However the utility of different fractal geometries varies

in these aspects, though they are primary motives for fractal antenna design [19]. For

example, monopole and dipole antennas using fractal Sierpinski gaskets have been

widely reported and their multiband characteristics have been associated with the self-

similarity of the fractal structure. However this explanation may not always be

realized, especially with other fractal structures. A quantitative link between

multiband characteristics of the antenna and a mathematically expressible feature of

the fractal geometry is needed for design optimization [163]. The use of fractal

geometries has been shown to improve several antenna features to different extents

[9]. Yet a direct corroboration between antenna properties and geometrical

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characteristics of underlying fractals has been missing. This research work is intended

as another step to fill this gap.

1.2 Antenna Design Parameters

There are certain parameters that have to be considered for the design of an

efficient antenna. The performance of the antenna is given by a number of design

parameters such as VSWR, radiation pattern, current distribution, input impedance,

return loss, electric field distribution, bandwidth etc. Some of these design parameters

for the antenna are discussed below:

1.2.1 Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR)

For the efficient operation of the antenna, there must be proper impedance

matching between transmitter/receiver and antenna so that maximum transfer of

power can take place. Maximum power can be transferred only if the impedance of

the transmitter/receiver is a complex conjugate of the impedance of the antenna and

vice versa [11]. If the antenna is not perfectly matched then a part of the input power

gets reflected back and because of these reflections standing waves forms which can

be given by a parameter called as voltage standing wave ratio. The VSWR is given by

[143]:

VSWR = (1.1)

where is known as the reflection coefficient and defined as the ratio of reflected

wave to the incident wave. Basically the VSWR is a measure of the impedance

mismatch between the transmitter and the antenna. Large value of VSWR corresponds

to the high mismatch. Minimum value of VSWR corresponds to a perfect match that

is taken as unity.

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1.2.2 Return Loss (RL)

The Return loss is a performance parameter which gives the amount of power

that is lost to the load and does not reflected as a reflection from the antenna.

Therefore the return loss is a parameter similar to the VSWR which express how well

the matching is between the transmitter and the antenna. The return loss is given as

[16]:

RL= -20log10 (dB) (1.2)

For a perfect matching between the transmitter and the antenna = 0 and RL = dB,

which implies that the incident power is not reflected back whereas a = 1 has a RL

= 0 dB, which illustrate that all the incident power is reflected back to the source.

VSWR of 2 is acceptable for practical applications and this corresponds to a return

loss value of -9.5 dB.

1.2.3 Radiation Efficiency

The radiation efficiency of an antenna may be defined as the ratio of total

power radiated to the total input power. Most of the losses in free space come from

the conducting part and from the other lossy material inside the antenna terminal.

1.2.4 Antenna Efficiency

The antenna efficiency is a parameter which indicates the amount of losses at

the antenna terminals and within the structure of the antenna. These losses are named

as the reflection losses and the I2R losses. The reflection losses are due to mismatch

between the transmitter and the antenna whereas I2R losses are due to the conduction

and dielectric losses [11]. The total efficiency is a function of the mismatch between

the conduction efficiency (ec) reflection efficiency (er), and dielectric efficiency (ed).

It is given by [16]:

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et = er ec ed (1.3)

where et is the total antenna efficiency.

1.2.5 Directivity/Gain

Antenna has the ability of focusing the radio frequency towards a desired

direction. The gain is closely associated with the directivity of the antenna. The

directivity describes that how much an antenna concentrates energy in one direction in

preference to radiation in other directions. When efficiency of the antenna is unity, the

directivity is equal to the antenna gain and antenna behaves as an isotropic radiator.

All antennas radiate more in a particular direction than in others. Thus the gain is the

amount of power that can be achieved in one direction at the expense of power lost at

the others. The gain is defined in terms of efficiency and antenna directivity by [157]:

G = et D (1.4)

where D is the directivity of the antenna and G is the gain of the antenna. The gain is

always related to the main lobe and is specified in the direction of maximum radiation

unless indicated.

1.2.6 Bandwidth (BW)

Bandwidth is defined as the range of frequencies over which the value of the

input VSWR increases from unity to a tolerable limit. It is a general classification of

the frequencies over which an antenna is effective. The bandwidth of a microstrip

patch antenna is given as [16]:

fh fl
BW (1.5)
fo

where fh is the upper frequency, fl is the lower frequency and fo is the resonant

frequency of the patch. In case of perfectly match microstrip antenna bandwidth is

given as [16]:

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BW = (1.6)

Where Q is the quality factor of the antenna.

1.2.7 Polarization

The polarization of an antenna is the orientation of the electric field (E-plane)

vector of the radio wave with respect to the earth surface and it is determined by the

physical structure of the antenna and by its orientation. Therefore a simple straight

wire antenna will have one polarization when mounted vertically and a different

polarization when mounted horizontally [43]. A transmitter antenna needs a receiving

antenna with the same polarization for efficient operation. In a circular polarized

antenna, the electric field varies in two orthogonal planes (x and y direction) with the

same magnitude and a phase difference of 90.

1.2.8 Radiation Pattern

Radiation characteristics of the antenna can be represented by radiation

pattern. The radiation pattern of the antenna may be defined as the relative

distribution of the relative power which is the function of the spatial directional

coordinates. These coordinates are expressed in terms of the azimuthal angle and the

elevation angle. Generally, it is a plot of radiated power from the antenna per unit

solid angle. Radiation characteristics of the antenna include power flux density, phase,

field strength and polarization. Radiation pattern is determined in the far-field region

in most of the cases where the distributions of the radiated power are not dependent to

the distance. It can be expressed in 2-D and 3-D. Its performance is often elaborated

in terms of its principle E-plane and H-plane patterns [11]. The E-plane may be

defined as the plane containing the electric-field vector and the direction of maximum

radiation and the H-plane is defined as the plane containing the magnetic-field vector

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and the direction of maximum radiation. Radiation properties of antenna can be

described in three common types that are isotropic, Omni-directional and directional.

Isotropic- It is an ideal antenna which is often taken as reference where the power

radiates equally in all directions.

Omni-directional- In omni-directional radiation pattern an antenna possesses an

essentially non-directional pattern in a given plane and a directional pattern in any

orthogonal plane.

Directional- An antenna which is having maximum directivity in particular

direction than others.

1.2.9 Electric Field Distribution

In the antenna theory, the dominant component of the electric field Ez is equal

to zero at the shorting strip and electric field intensity at the opposite edge is

significantly large. There is definite part for the electric field components in the x-

direction and y-direction which corresponds to the feed source. It implies that the

electric lines of force are directed to the ground plane from the feed source. When the

width of the shorting strip is narrower in comparison to the planar element, the

electric field components Ex and Ey starts generating at the all open circuit edges of

the patch antenna element [16]. These fields are known as fringing fields and are the

radiating sources in patch antennas.

1.2.10 Current Distribution

There is a very large current flow below the surface of the planar element and

on the ground plane compare to the upper surface of the patch element. This type of

antenna behavior plays an important role on its performance and there is no effect on

the antenna characteristics from the external objects. The ground surface waves can

generate spurious radiations or couple energy at discontinuities and leading to the

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distortions in the main patterns. These effects can be controlled by the use of photonic

band gap (PBG) structures or by simply using air as dielectric medium. This provides

the solution of the limitation of poor efficiency and the narrow bandwidth of the

antenna.

1.2.11 Input Impedance

The Input Impedance of the antenna may be defined as the impedance

presented by the antenna at its terminals or the ratio of voltage to the current at the

terminals or it can be the ratio of appropriate components of the electric to magnetic

fields at that point. The impedance of the antenna can be given as [126]:

Zin = Rin + j Xin (1.7)

where Zin is the antenna impedance, Rin is the antenna resistance and Xin is the antenna

reactance at the antenna terminals. The imaginary part Xin of the input impedance

represents the stored energy in the near field of the antenna. Rin is the resistive part of

the input impedance consisting of two components namely the radiation resistance Rr

and the loss resistance RL [11]. The power associated with the radiation resistance is

the power actually radiated by the antenna whereas the power dissipated in the loss

resistance is lost as heat in the antenna itself due to conducting or dielectric losses [6].

Generally the impedance level for an antenna is 50 ohms. If the input impedance of

the antenna differs from 50 ohms at some frequency that means some part of the

power is reflected back and due to this mismatch of the input impedances standing

waves are formed.

1.3 Method of Moment (MoM)

Numerical techniques are necessary in more general antenna geometries,

especially when complicated structures such as fractals are involved. A very common

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method in electromagnetics, efficient for antenna analysis as well as for diffraction

and scattering problems is the method of moments [157]. MoM is a very versatile and

powerful technique which can be used for linear, planar, as well as three-dimensional

geometries. This method involves segmentation of the antenna geometry and

choosing suitable basis functions to represent currents on these segments [16]. A set

of equations is obtained by enforcing the boundary conditions with a suitable set of

testing functions. This result in a matrix whose order is proportional to the number of

segments on which the current distribution is represented [47]. The solution to the

problem can be found by inverting this matrix.

1.4 Biologically Inspired Optimization in Antenna Design

During last decade, biologically inspired optimization techniques are gaining

popularity among the researchers in every branch of engineering. These techniques

are a set of optimization tools whose working principle originates from replicating

different biological phenomena [123]. In the real world, the parameters may be

difficult to determine owing to the complexity of chaotic systems. Therefore the

parameter estimation has become an important topic in research over the years.

Recently some evolutionary computation algorithms like artificial neural network

(ANN), ant colony optimization (ACO), biogeography based optimization (BBO),

particle swarm optimization (PSO), bacterial foraging optimization (BFO), genetic

algorithm (GA), artificial bee colony (ABC) etc. have been successfully applied to

real-world optimization problems. Several researchers have introduced evolutionary

based methods into parameter estimation of chaotic systems. Optimization methods

are becoming very popular in engineering design activities, especially because of the

availability and affordability of high-speed computers systems [85]. They are

extensively used in those engineering design problems where the emphasis is on

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maximizing or minimizing a certain goal. In this thesis, instead of analytical methods,

soft-computing methods are used in optimizing the antenna designs. These

approaches have been finding applications in antenna engineering since 1990s and a

number of new applications have been reported both for analysis and design of

antenna.

1.5 Motivation

Over the years, a lot of research work has been performed in the application of

fractals to electromagnetic problems. Inspite of having advantages, their practical

applications have been limited. There might be two basic reasons for this limited use

of fractal geometries; first reason is that, all operational frequencies in the classical

form of these geometries are not user defined frequencies and second reason is that

although some procedures have been reported for shifting of the operational

frequencies but no systematic formulation is available as to reach to a final fractal

shape that can work as per user requirements. If these problems in fractal

electromagnetics can be addressed properly then these geometries can find an eminent

place in practical applications. This prompted us to take up this challenging task for

our research work.

In this thesis biologically inspired optimization techniques in conjunction with curve

fitting have been used for the design of fractal antennas for wireless telemedicine

applications. Telemedicine is increasingly utilized by health care providers due to the

rising demand for remote monitoring of human vital signs. Medical care mostly

depends on face-to-face encounter between doctors and patients. In places where face

to face encounters are not possible, telemedicine links are relied upon to link patients

to specialized doctors consultation or for obtaining opinions. The aim of using these

optimization techniques is that they offer some unique advantages for the present

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research problem such that these methods are adaptive and scalable, use of global

optimization methods can avoid the chances of being trapped in local minima, these

methods provide low cost solution and can handle many variables simultaneously.

1.6 Research Objectives

As with several other fields, the nature of fractal geometries has caught the

attention of antenna designers. Rapid advancements in wireless communication

technology are paving the way for telemedicine to become a practical option for many

countries and organizations. The main aim of the proposed work is to carry out

research contributions leading to the development of some user defined new fractal

antennas for telemedicine applications. The goal has been achieved by dividing the

research work in to following objectives:

a) Development of a user defined fractal antenna.

b) Development of a modified Koch curve fractal antenna for its

miniaturization.

c) Development of a new type of hybrid fractal antenna for multiband

applications.

d) Investigation on the performance parameters of fractal antenna using

different substrates.

e) Optimization of fractal antenna parameters using biologically inspired

computational techniques.

In order to meet the above mentioned research objectives several task were

considered and solved successfully. At the outset the task of fractal antenna analysis

was approached as a regression problem. In the next phase, the task of designing the

fractal antenna was converted to an optimization problem and solved using

biologically inspired techniques. The curve fitting developed relation was embedded

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inside the optimizations techniques in order to calculate the fitness function as per the

requirement of user. Under fractal antenna category, new fractal geometry, Modified

Koch curve and Hybrid fractal tree were taken as the test candidates in order to verify

the validity of the developed methodology. Experiments were conducted in order to

verify the effectiveness of the developed approach.

1.7 Organization of the Thesis

The thesis consists of eight chapters. Chapter one gives an introduction of the

entire work including the motivation and objective of the research work. A

comprehensive review of the fractal electromagnetics has been done in Chapter two.

Various types of fractal structures that have been used as antennas have been

reviewed briefly. The iterated function system (IFS), a tool to design different fractal

structures have been described in this chapter.

The details of biologically inspired optimization techniques with special

emphasis to the two tools that have actually used in the presented work, viz., BFO and

PSO, are given in Chapter three. This chapter also discusses the conventional antenna

design process and how the limitation involved in it can be overcome using different

biologically inspired optimization techniques.

Chapter four deals with the design process of new fractal antenna. The two

major steps of the design process, that is, design of new fractal geometry and

implementation of the PSO and BFO, have been compared and discussed in detail in

this chapter. The performance of the optimized structure was validated against

simulation and experimental findings.

A similar approach has been adopted for the design of modified Koch curve

fractal antenna and a comparison with the conventional Koch fractal antenna is the

part of the Chapter five. The asymmetrical ground plane has been optimized by means

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of PSO and BFO in conjunction with curve fitting, to make the proposed antenna

miniaturized and feasible for wide band operation. A critical comparison for

implementation of both of the optimization techniques is highlighted. In this test case

also, fractal structure was designed and experimentally verified.

A new hybrid fractal tree with various branching angles and scaling ratios are

studied in Chapter six. Besides applying the developed methodology for antenna

designing, two different optimization techniques (PSO and BFO) have been applied

and compared to validate the performance of the developed design methodology. The

parametric variations of the proposed geometry with varying ground plane width were

also discussed.

In chapter seven, design and optimization of hybrid fractal tree antenna has

been discussed in detail. The effect of various substrates on antenna characteristics

has been adequately analyzed. A detailed study is conducted by varying ground plane

area of the proposed antenna to analyze its effect on resonating characteristics. A

direct relationship between geometrical properties and antenna resonance

characteristics is obtained and verified experimentally.

Finally, Chapter eight summarizes the entire work of this thesis along with the

suggestions for further work.

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