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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
mobile devices such as smart phones, laptops and PDAs [132]. The rising trend of
communication systems [98], [143]. Microstrip patch antennas are widely preferred
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
dielectric extract a part of total power available for direct radiation [179]. Therefore
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
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
multiband and compact systems [34], [129]. This has started antenna research in many
The term fractal means broken or irregular fragments, were first defined by
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
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
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
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
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
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characteristics of underlying fractals has been missing. This research work is intended
There are certain parameters that have to be considered for the design of an
return loss, electric field distribution, bandwidth etc. Some of these design parameters
For the efficient operation of the antenna, there must be proper impedance
power can take place. Maximum power can be transferred only if the impedance of
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]:
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.
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.
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)
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.
Bandwidth is defined as the range of frequencies over which the value of the
fh fl
BW (1.5)
fo
where fh is the upper frequency, fl is the lower frequency and fo is the resonant
given as [16]:
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BW = (1.6)
1.2.7 Polarization
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
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
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
orthogonal plane.
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
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
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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.
presented by the antenna at its terminals or the ratio of voltage to the current at the
fields at that point. The impedance of the antenna can be given as [126]:
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
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
choosing suitable basis functions to represent currents on these segments [16]. A set
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
are a set of optimization tools whose working principle originates from replicating
different biological phenomena [123]. In the real world, the parameters may be
parameter estimation has become an important topic in research over the years.
algorithm (GA), artificial bee colony (ABC) etc. have been successfully applied to
are becoming very popular in engineering design activities, especially because of the
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maximizing or minimizing a certain goal. In this thesis, instead of analytical methods,
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
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
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
fitting have been used for the design of fractal antennas for wireless telemedicine
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.
As with several other fields, the nature of fractal geometries has caught the
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
miniaturization.
applications.
different substrates.
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
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 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
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
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
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
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
has been adequately analyzed. A detailed study is conducted by varying ground plane
Finally, Chapter eight summarizes the entire work of this thesis along with the
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