IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL.

10, 2011 67

Miniaturized UWB Monopole Microstrip Antenna

Design by the Combination of Giusepe Peano
and Sierpinski Carpet Fractals
Homayoon Oraizi and Shahram Hedayati

Abstract—A fractal monopole antenna is proposed for the appli-

cation in the UWB frequency range, which is designed by the com-
bination of two fractal geometries. The first iterations of Giusepe
Peano fractal are applied on the edges of a square patch, and a Fig. 1. Initiator and generator of the Giusepe Peano fractal.
Sierpinski Carpet fractal is formed on its surface. The feed cir-
cuit is a microstrip line with a matching section over a semi-ellip-
tical ground plane. The presented antenna has an omnidirectional
radiation pattern, a good gain, and high efficiency. The fabrica-
tion and measurement data attest to the satisfaction of the design
specifications.
Index Terms—Broadband antenna, fractal, microstrip antenna,
miniaturization.
Fig. 2. Giusepe Peano fractal as applied to the edges of the metallic patches.

I. INTRODUCTION

T HE INTRINSIC properties of fractal geometries are con-

ducive to the miniaturization of antenna designs and re-
alization of antenna multiband characteristics. Since the fractal
structures are generated by a recursive process, they can produce
a very long length or a wide surface area in a limited space. Con-
sequently, fractal structures can give rise to miniaturized wide- Fig. 3. Sierpinski Carpet fractal.
band antennas having radiation patterns and input impedance
characteristics similar to the larger antennas. In 1951, Mandel-
bort proposed the fractal geometries [1], which were extensively The spiral and helical antennas may be considered as examples
used in various science and engineering fields. They were also of frequency-independent antennas. The self-similarity proper-
applied for the design and realization of frequency-independent ties of log-periodic antennas also make them frequency-inde-
and multiband antennas. Multiplication of an antenna size by pendent [6].
a factor generally decreases the operating frequency of the an- In this letter, we propose a fractal monopole antenna for
tenna by the same factor. If an antenna is much smaller than the coverage of ultrawideband (UWB), which is realized by
the wavelength of the operating frequency, its efficiency deteri- the combination of Giusepe Peano and Sierpinski Carpet frac-
orates drastically since its radiation resistance decreases and the tals [7]. The Peano fractal is applied to the edges of a square
reactive energy stored in its near field increases [2]. These two patch, and the Sierpinski Carpet fractal is implemented by
factors make the matching of a small antenna to its feeding net- cutting slots on the patch area [9]. The antenna feed is through a
work difficult. Consequently, fractal antennas are a viable can- microstrip line with a matching section [8], [10]. The presented
didate for their miniaturization [3]. Antenna geometries and di- antenna has an omnidirectional radiation pattern, a good gain,
mensions are the main factors determining their operating fre- and high efficiency.
quencies [4]. It is shown that if the angular variations define the
antenna geometry, then its performance is independent of fre- II. DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED FRACTAL STRUCTURE
quency because no particular size may be attributable to it [5].
Therefore, the antenna has an effectively infinite bandwidth. The recursive procedure of the Giusepe Peano fractal is
shown in Fig. 1, which is applied to the edges of the square
patch up to the second iteration as depicted in Fig. 2. The
Manuscript received January 04, 2011; revised January 17, 2011; accepted iterations of Sierpinski carpet fractal are shown in Fig. 3. The
January 18, 2011. Date of publication January 28, 2011; date of current version
March 14, 2011. proposed antenna applies the above two fractals to the square
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Iran Univer- patch as shown in Fig. 4. The structure of the proposed fractal
sity of Science and Technology, Tehran 16844, Iran (e-mail: h_oraizi@iust.ac. antenna is shown in Fig. 5, where its dimensions are indicated.
ir).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this letter are available online The antenna feed is through a microstrip line with a matching
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. section over a semi-elliptical ground plane. The ground plane is
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LAWP.2011.2109030 selected as a combination of the rectangular and semi-elliptical
1536-1225/$26.00 © 2011 IEEE
68 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 10, 2011

Fig. 4. Proposed geometry. Fig. 6. Prototype model of the proposed antenna.

Fig. 7. Computer simulation results and measurement data for the reflection
coefficient.

simulation software, which is also used for the analysis of the

antenna.

Fig. 5. Structure of proposed fractal antenna. III. SIMULATION AND MEASUREMENT RESULTS
A prototype model of the proposed antenna is fabricated and
is shown in Fig. 6. The computer simulation results and mea-
shapes in order to obtain an approximately linear phase varia- surement data for the reflection coefficient as are shown in
tion for for the transmission and reception of narrow pulses Fig. 7. Observe that the bandwidth of the proposed antenna (for
in UWB systems. The group delay should be nearly constant the definition of 10 dB) is from 1 to 15 GHz, which may cover
across the frequency band [11]. As the iteration of fractal the UWB frequency range. The comparison of of the first
geometry increases, its resonance frequency decreases, which and second iterations of the Giusepe Peano fractal geometry is
may lead to an effective antenna miniaturization. However, drawn in Fig. 8. Observe that the reduction of resonance fre-
for iterations higher than the second iteration, the reduction quency of the second iteration is quite negligible relative to that
of operating frequency is not achievable since the antenna of the first iteration. Furthermore, the bandwidth at the reso-
design becomes quite complicated and its fabrication becomes nance frequency of the second iteration is quite narrower than
difficult. The configuration of Giusepe Peano fractal geometry that of the first iteration.
becomes quite unwieldy for iterations higher than the second The VSWR for the proposed antenna for iterations 1 and 2 is
iteration. shown in Fig. 9. The gain versus frequency response for itera-
The selected substrate is FR4 with dielectric constant tions 1 and 2 are drawn in Fig. 10, which shows an acceptable
, substrate thickness mm, and loss tangent antenna gain in the UWB range. The radiation efficiency of the
. The metallic square patch has dimensions 20 13 mm . fractal antenna versus frequency for iterations 1 and 2 is drawn
The feed line is designed for a 50- characteristic impedance, in Fig. 11, which is quite good.
where its width is 3 mm. The feed line is tapered for impedance The comparison of antenna characteristics (namely gain,
matching. return loss, radiation efficiency, and SWR) of the first and
The ground plane is a combination of rectangular and el- second iterations of the Giusepe Peano fractal indicates that
liptical sheets. Its dimensions are optimized by the HFSS12 the first iteration has more desirable characteristics and also a
ORAIZI AND HEDAYATI: MINIATURIZED UWB MONOPOLE MICROSTRIP ANTENNA DESIGN 69

Fig. 11. Radiation efficiency of the fractal antenna versus frequency for
Fig. 8. Comparison of return losses of the fractal iterations 1 and 2. iterations 1 and 2.

Fig. 9. VSWR of the proposed antenna versus frequency.

Fig. 12. Real and imaginary parts of the antenna input impedance versus
frequency.

Fig. 10. Gain versus frequency of the proposed antenna for iterations 1 and 2.

simpler fabrication process. The design of the first iteration of

the Peano fractal is conducted by a parametric analysis through Fig. 13. Phase of the reflection coefficient versus frequency for the proposed
the HFSS12 simulation software. antenna.
The real and imaginary parts of the proposed antenna input
impedance versus frequency in first iteration are drawn in
Fig. 12. The phase of the reflection coefficient versus frequency linear phase response of the radiated field as well as stable
for the proposed antenna is shown in Fig. 13. In a UWB system, group delay response is desirable for not distorting the shape of
70 IEEE ANTENNAS AND WIRELESS PROPAGATION LETTERS, VOL. 10, 2011

Fig. 16. Comparison of return losses of the Giusepe fractal with other common
fractals.

depicted in Fig. 15 for reference. Their performance as

versus frequency curves are drawn in Fig. 16 for comparison.

IV. CONCLUSION
A monopole square patch antenna is introduced by shaping
its edges into the form of a Giusepe Peano fractal and its sur-
face area as a Sierpinski carpet fractal. Its feeding system is a
combination of a microstrip line and a matching section over a
semi-elliptical ground plane. The proposed antenna has an om-
nidirectional radiation pattern, a good gain, and high efficiency.
Consequently, it is shown that different combinations of fractal
geometries may be introduced for the design of antennas for var-
ious systems such as WLAN and UWB.

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