Hybrid Fractal Antenna for Wireless Applications

Every communication system inevitably needs an antenna for transmission and reception of signals. A modern-day wireless communication system put various demands on the antenna such as multi-band working, compact structures and low cost. Fractal geometry comprises of a self-repeating pattern that ends in infinitely intricate fine structures. Fractal geometries increase the electrical length of the antenna, without increasing the physical dimension. Therefore, it makes a suitable option for miniaturisation and multiband applications.This project presents a hybrid fractal antenna. Hybrid geometry brings out the best of both the parent geometries. The hybrid geometry is created out of Sierpinski carpet and Giuseppe Peano fractal geometries. The Sierpinski carpet is modified using Giuseppe Peano at the edges. The antenna is designed using OpenEMS software version 5.1.0. The antenna is designed on FR-4 substrate. It is found that the number of operational frequencies has increased from 8 GHz to 9 GHz and there is an operational bandwidth enhancement of approximately 400 MHz in the higher frequencies between 9 10 GHz. Apart from that, the highest gain of the antenna has increased from 6.003 dB to 9.582 dB, the antenna efficiency from 25.05% to 30.14% and the directivity from 6.634 dB to 9.5825 dB. These results indicate that the use of hybrid fractal greatly reduces the size of the antenna, effectively miniaturising it. The proposed structure is expected to work for wireless applications.