ISSN : 2230-7109 (Online) | ISSN : 2230-9543 (Print) IJECT Vol.

4, Issue Spl - 3, April - June 2013

A Study of Various Fractal Antenna Design Techniques for

Wireless Applications
1
Amanpreet Kaur, 2Naveen Kumar, 3Dr. Basudeo Prasad
1,2,3
Dept. of ECE, Indo Global College of Engineering, Abhipur, Mohali, Punjab, India

Abstract II. Review

Recently there has been a great deal of interest in the design of
antennas for wireless communication because of Continuously
expanding range of wireless telecommunication services and
related applications for voice and data transmission. Wideband
and low profile antennas are in great demand for both commercial
and military applications. Multi-band and wideband antennas
are desirable in personal communication systems, small satellite
communication terminals, and other wireless applications. The
purpose of this paper is to review a number of innovative design
concepts of Fractal antenna for wireless applications.
Keywords
Antenna Design techniques, Wireless Applications, Fractal
Antenna
I. Introduction
I n The last decades, there has been a huge evolution of the mobile
communication systems (GSM, DCS, UMTS, BLUETOOTH,
WLAN, ). In most of these systems, terminals and base stations
have to deal simultaneously with more than one frequency band,
for that reason, multiband behavior with a single radiating element
is desirable. The use of fractal geometries in antennas has shown
to be a good strategy in order to obtain log periodical multiband
behavior. This is mainly due to the self-similarity property of
fractals [1], which means that some of their parts have the same
shape as the whole object but at a different scale. There has
been an ever-growing demand, in telecommunication sectors,
for antenna designs that possess multiband properties such as
verities of application [2], in aeronautical, maritime field. Many
of the communication devices have a multifunction capacity such
as radio navigations, satellite information data capture. There
are a variety of approaches that have been developed to achieve
desirable features of antenna and fractal is one of that.
Fractals were first defined by Benoit Mandelbort in 1975. These
geometries have been used to characterize unique occurrences in
pattern of nature [3], that were difficult to define with Euclidean
geometries like length of coastlines, the clouds density, and the
tree’s branches. It describes the class of complex geometries that
are created through successive iteration of applying a geometric
generator to a simple self similar basis. Traditionally, a wideband
antenna in the low frequency wireless bands can only be achieved
with heavily loaded wire antennas, which usually means different
antennas are needed for different frequency bands. Recent progress
in the study of fractal antennas suggests some attractive solutions
for using a single small antenna operating in Several frequency
bands.
The fractal concept can be used to reduce antenna size, such as the
Koch dipole, Koch monopole, Koch loop, and Minkowski loop.
Or, it can be used to achieve multiple bandwidths and increase
bandwidth of each single band due to the self-similarity in the
geometries, such as the Sierpinski dipole, Cantor slot patch, and
fractal tree dipole. In other designs, fractal structures are used to
achieve a single very wideband response, e.g., the printed circuit
fractal loop antenna.
A large number of Fractal Antenna design approaches have been
proposed for wireless applications. The overgrowing body of
the literature suggests the design of multiband antennas. The
logical and obvious reason for prevalence of this trend is due
to integration of various technologies in hand held and portable
wireless communication devices. The purpose of the survey is
donated to a remarkable growth of antenna design techniques in
wireless communications
A. Multiband Hybrid Meander-Koch Fractal Antenna
A novel compact size antenna has been designed for the
application of WLAN USB dongle. The antenna is capable of
covering the entire band of WLAN IEEE 802.11 a/b/g standard.
The antenna has a bandwidth of 262 MHz at the lower band of
WLAN. This antenna has a wide bandwidth of 733 MHz at the
upper frequency band of operation. This antenna has also shown
some good performance characteristics [5], such as; symmetric
radiation patterns and considerable gain. Despite the small size,
the multiband antenna depicts an overall fair performance and it
could be a promising candidate for deployment into USB dongle
for WLAN applications.
The parametric study of the antenna reveals the multiband
behaviour. The return loss bandwidth calculated at -10 dB extends
from 2.2909 GHz to 2.553 GHz. This is the lower band of operation.
The return loss bandwidth [5], at the upper band of operation
ranges from 5.1406 to 5.8737 GHz at -10 dB. The antenna has
a directivity gain of 2.281 dBi at 2.41 GHz, and a directivity
gain of 2.30 dBi at 5.36 GHz. Therefore Multiband hybrid-Koch
Fractal Antenna easily meets the bandwidth requirements of the
WLAN IEEE 802.11a/b/g (2.41 to 2.49 GHz, 5.15 to 5.35 GHz
and 5.725 to 5.825 GHz).
The geometry of antenna is described in fig. 1.
Fig. 1: Dimensions of the Hybrid Meander-Koch Fractal
Antenna

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IJECT Vol. 4, Issue Spl - 3, April - June 2013 ISSN : 2230-7109 (Online) | ISSN : 2230-9543 (Print)

B. Square Patch Fractal Antenna C. Fractal Tree Antenna

Square Patch Fractal Antenna is a good example of the properties of
fractal boundary patch antennas. As the fractal iteration increases,
perimeter of patch increases and effective area of antenna decreases.
The radiator is now resonant at more frequencies. It gives
multiband properties to fractal geometry antenna with directive
patterns. The examples presented here have resonant frequency in
L band, C band and X band [6] with wideband characteristics. The
design antenna for Aeronautical radio navigation at 2.7-2.9 GHz
and Aeronautical/Maritime radio navigation 9.0-9.3 GHz with
captured downlink data of fixed or mobile satellite in S band and C
band. This behavior is obtained with a simple feeding scheme. So,
fractal boundary patch antennas are an interesting replacement in
the multiband antenna with broadside radiation patterns and with
efficient directivity. This geometry offers numerous variations
in dimension and design, hence gives wide scope for various
commercial applications.
The geometry of antenna is described in fig. 2.
A novel tree shaped fractal antenna using rectangular, triangular
and wired structure based on fractal tree geometry. This antenna
is compact in size and simple to design. This behavior is obtained
with using coaxial probe fed method [8]. The antenna has
more variables to tune to desired response, like length of stem,
separation between ground and feed, iterations, scale factor, angle.
The antenna is designed for 2.8 GHz frequency, which finds its
application for WLAN (Wireless video operation). A promising
fractal geometry that ensures a successful design of multiband
antenna is known as the deterministic fractal tree. The Fractal
tree structure design has following specification [8] Length of
main stem L=30mm, width of the stem W=10mm, Substrate
height h=2.3mm, permittivity of the substrate r=4.8 and resonant
Frequency is 2.8 GHz.
The geometry of the Fractal Tree antenna is shown in fig. 3.

Fig. 3: Novel Design for Fractal Tree Antenna

D. Sierpinski Fractal Microstrip Patch Antenna

The triangle of modified Sierpinski fractal microstrip patch
antenna designed for double-and/or multi-frequency operation.
The calculated as well as measured results show that the multi-
band operation of the antenna obtained due to proper scaling
factor and the geometry of fractal antenna satisfies WLAN and/
or Bluetooth ISM-band requirements. The modified Sierpinski
gasket is an efficient radiator with the ability to handle both the
Fig. 2: Square Patch Fractal Antenna front-Top views 2.4 and 5.2 GHz ISM bands [11] without a matching network. The
modification achieved a significant size reduction in view of the
Table 1: Resonant Frequency and Return Loss traditional Sierpinski gasket [9]. Furthermore, the modification
Iteration Resonant frequencies (GHz) Return loss(dB) proved to respect the multiband and relative broadband behavior
of the gasket.
06.15 -19.39
1ST The MFSG antenna is based on standard Siepinski fractal of scale
11.40 -15.33 number s determined from ratio of central frequencies (2.4-2.5
03.86 -26.72 GHz -IEEE 802.11 b/g, and 5.725-5.825 GHz –IEEE 802.11a),
2ND
07.96 -19.69 of two WLAN standards [11],
03.00 -22.20
3RD
07.49 -18.70
Table 2: VSWR and Gain at Particular Band
Center frequency (FC) GHz VSWR GAIN (dB) It covers also the Bluetooth standard bandwidth, 2.400-2.4835
GHz. The geometry of antenna is described in fig. 4.
3.005 1.16 6.44
7.4925 1.26 11.80
9.6884 1.05 8.53
11.2161 1.38 12.02

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ISSN : 2230-7109 (Online) | ISSN : 2230-9543 (Print) IJECT Vol. 4, Issue Spl - 3, April - June 2013

Fig. 4: Modified Sierpinski Fractal Gasket MSFG Monopole Antenna Geometry

The high h=63.5 mm of triangle, was modified after numerical experimentations to 66 mm as the best one for optimal position of
lover resonant frequency of WLAN system band.

III. Conclusion
From this we conclude that there are many Fractal techniques that used to design an antenna for wireless applications, each one has
its own pros and cons.
These approaches considered the different attributes related to performance parameters of an antenna such as; wide bandwidth, low
VSWR, high gain, high radiation efficiency and small size etc. This paper also exposed a performance comparison table of different
technique that was proposed earlier for wireless applications such as; Wireless video operation, WLAN USB dongle, Aeronautical
radio navigation, Aeronautical/Maritime radio navigation, Bluetooth systems application.

Table 3: Summary of Various Antenna Designs with Their Pros and Cons
Gain & Radiation
S.No. Antenna Design Frequency Band Applications
Pattern
IEEE 802.11 standard Capable of
Meander-Koch Fractal (2.41 to 2.49 GHz, 5.15 2.281 dBi - 3.85 dBi covering the entire band of
1. Antenna to 5.35 GHz and 5.725 Omnidirectional WLAN IEEE 802.11 a/b/g
to 5.825 GHz) pattern Standard. Designed for WLAN
USB dongle.
Square Patch Fractal Aeronautical radio navigation
2.7-2.9 GHz 6.44- 12.02 (dB)
2. Antenna Aeronautical/Maritime radio
9.0-9.3 GHz Broadside pattern
navigation
Fractal Tree Antenna WLAN (Wireless video
3. 2.8 GHz Omnidirectional
Operation).
3.0 – 5.9 (db)
Sierpinski fractal 2.4 and Omnidirectional WLAN / Bluetooth systems
4.
microstrip patch antenna 5.2 GHz ISM bands application

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IJECT Vol. 4, Issue Spl - 3, April - June 2013
Refrences
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50 International Journal of Electronics & Communication Technology
ISSN : 2230-7109 (Online) | ISSN : 2230-9543 (Print)
Amanpreet Kaur was born in 1990.
She is pursuing M.Tech in ECE at
Indo Global College of Engg., Mohali,
Punjab, India. She is studying Fractal
antennas, their design, characteristics
and application.
Naveen Kumar is Assitant Professor at
Indo Global College of Engg., Mohali,
Punjab, India. He is pursuing M.E. from
National Institute of Technical Teachers’
Training & Research (NITTTR),
Chandigarh. India. He has completed
B.Tech from SVIET, Mohali (Punjab),
India in the year 2009. He has 2 years of
academic experience. His areas of interest
are Wireless & Mobile communication,
Antenna Design.
Prof. Basudeo Prasad is currently Prof.
and Head of ECE Deptt. at Indo Global
College Of Engg. , Abhipur, Mohali (Pb.)
He was on the the post of Scientist- G
(Additional Director) and scientist
in-charge environmental monitoring
instruments division, Central Scientific
Instruments Organisation (CSIO) ,
Chandigarh. He completed his PhD in
the year 2012 and M.E. from Panjab
university ,Chandigarh in the year 1985. He is a recipient of several
prestigious awards which includes CSIR and Ministry of home
affairs. He is a fellow and senior member of various prestigious
socities like IETE , computer society of India, Instruments Society
of India. He chaired many national and international seminars and
conferences in India.
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