Int. J. Electron. Commun.

(AE) 66 (2012) 6875

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Electronics and

Communications (AE)
journal homepage: www.elsevier.de/aeue

On the design of inscribed triangle circular fractal antenna for UWB applications
Raj Kumar , Dhananjay Magar, K. Kailas Sawant
Microwave and Millimeterwave Antenna Laboratory, Department of Electronics Engineering, Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (Deemed University), Girinagar, Pune 411025,
India

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 24 April 2010
Accepted 10 May 2011
Keywords:
Microstrip antenna
Fractal
Monopole antenna
Ultrawide bandwidth
CPW-Fed
Resonant frequency
Omnidirectional radiation pattern

a b s t r a c t
In this article, an ultrawide band inscribed triangle circular fractal antenna is presented. The antenna has
been designed on FR4 substrate dielectric constant r = 4.3 and thickness of substrate 1.53 mm with initial
dimension of 30 mm diameter. The experimental result of fractal antenna exhibits the excellent ultra
bandwidth from 2.25 GHz to 15 GHz corresponds to 147.83% impedance bandwidth at VSWR 2:1. This
ultrawide band characteristcs of antenna has been achieved by using the CPW-fed and fractal concept. The
measured radiation pattern of fractal antenna is nealy omnidirectional in azimuth plane and bidirectional
in elevation plane. The measured group delay of proposed antenna is almost constant throughout the
band. Such type of antenna is very useful for UWB communication system.
2011 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has designated
the 3.1 to 10.6 GHz band for UWB modern communications. UltraWideband (UWB) commonly refers to signal or system that either
has a large relative bandwidth (BW) or a large absolute bandwidth [13]. Such a large BW offers specic advantages with respect
to signal robustness, information content and/or implementation
simplicity. UWB communication system requires a UWB antenna of
small size and simple to design and fabricate. Some UWB antennas
are much more complex than other existing single band, dual band
and multi-band antennas [46]. Most of the UWB monopole antennas investigated till today are non-planar as in [5,6] and due to their
protruded structure, they cannot be integrated with integrated circuits and they are fragile. Liang [7] has reported the CPW-feed
circular disc monopole antenna for UWB applications. Recently,
various UWB fractal antennas have also been reported for UWB
applications [811]. In [8], CrownSierpinski microstrip antenna is
proposed to reduce the size of a crown square fractal. The frequency
notched ultra-wideband microstrip slot antenna with a fractal tuning stub is proposed to achieve frequency notched function [9,10].
Ding et al. [11] and Kumar et al. [12,13] have proposed a new UWB
fractal antenna by adopting the fractal concept on the CPW-fed
circular UWB antenna.
This paper presents a new inscribed triangle circular fractal
antenna for UWB applications. The proposed fractal antenna has

Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 20 24304149.

E-mail address: dr.rajkumarkumar@yahoo.com (R. Kumar).
1434-8411/$ see front matter 2011 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.aeue.2011.05.003

advantages of compact size, low manufacturing cost, easy fabrication, low prole, and very small ground plane suitable for
integration with compact UWB systems. A detail parametric study
of antenna has been done. The performance of the proposed
antenna is characterized in term of impedance bandwidth, radiation patterns and group delay.
2. Antenna geometry
Monopole antenna with CPW-feed of 30 mm diameter is shown
in Fig. 1a. This is called as initiator or zeroth iteration. Fractal
geometry with each iteration has been constructed from monopole
circular disc of 30 mm diameter. In rst ietration, four regular polyhedron of size 8.57 mm has been taken inside the circle of diameter
30 mm and each polyhedron is rotated with an angle 30 . These
four polyhedron were substrated from 30 mm circle diameter. This
is called 1st iteration as shown in Fig. 1b. In 2nd iteration, a circle
of 21.2 mm diameter has been taken inside this four polyhedron. In
21.2 mm diameter circle, four polyheron of size 8.53 mm has been
taken again and each polyheron is rotated with an angle of 30 then
this four polyheron were substrated from 21.2 mm circle diameter.
This is called 2nd iteration as shown in Fig. 1c. In 3rd iteration,
a circle of 15 mm diameter has been taken inside the substrated
polyheron. In this circle of diameter 15 mm again four polyheron
of size 8.5 mm has been taken and each polyheron is rotated with
an angle of 30 then these four polyheron were substrated from
15 mm circle diameter. This is called 3rd iteration as shown in
Fig. 1d. In 4th iteration, a circle of 10.7 mm diameter has been taken
inside the substrated four polyheron. Now, in this circle of diameter
10.7 mm again four polyheron of size 8.46 mm has been taken each

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69

Fig. 1. Proposed antenna with respect to each iteration.

polyheron is rotated with an angle of 30 then these four polyhedron were substrated from 10.7 mm circle diameter. This is called
4th iteration as shown in Fig. 1e. This process can be repeated upto
innite iteration. Practically innite iterative structure is not possible because of fabrication constraints. The fourth iterative fractal
antenna has been nalized to design on the same substrate dielectric constant and thickness as conventional microstrip monopole
antenna as shown in Fig. 1a. This fourth iterative antenna has
also been fed with the coplanar feed. The CPW-feed and radiating elements both are printed on the top side of a low-cost
FR-4 substrate with dielectric constant r = 4.3, h = 1.53 mm and
tan = 0.0221.
3. Design of circular microstrip antenna
The design expression of simple circular microstrip antenna for
calculating the resonant frequency [14] is given as
fr =

1.841vo
2reff

circular disc monopole antenna. In this paper, resonance elements

have been added by inscribing polyhedron in various concentric
circles as shown in Fig. 1. The proposed fractal antenna with optimized dimension has been shown in Fig. 2 with CPW-feed. The
50  impedance is achieved by adjusting the width W = 3.2 mm of
the inner conductor and the gap between the ground plane and
feed width is g1 = 0.5 mm. To achieve the UWB characteristic, the
gap between patch and ground has been optimized to h = 0.4 mm.
The length of ground plane GL = 28 mm and width of the ground
plane 25 mm have been optimized.
5. Parametic study of fractal antenna
The circular disc monopole fractal antenna has been shown
in Fig. 2 with optimized dimension. It has been observed during
simulation that the UWB characteristic of the proposed antenna

(1)

eff

where vo is the velocity of light. The effective radius reff can be

calculated by following expression

reff = ro 1 +

1/2

ro eff

  ro 
ln

2h

2h
+ (1.41r + 1.77) +

h
ro

(0.268eff + 1.65)

(2)

where ro is radius of the circular patch. The dimension of the

simple solid circular patch is taken as radius 15 mm. This patch
has been designed on FR4 substrate dielectric constant of r = 4.3
and thickness h = 1.53 mm. The monopole and fractal monopole
antenna has been fed with 50  CPW-feed. The advantage of coplanar feed is that the feed of the antenna, ground plane and radiating
elements all are printed on the same side of the substrate. It has
reported [1113] that CPW-feed antenna performs better well in
respect of bandwidth and the radiation pattern.
4. UWB characteristic and miniaturization
A simple circular disc monopole antenna with CPW-fed is shown
in Fig. 1a. It is understood that current distribution of the proposed
antenna is mainly along the circumference of the circular disc. The
current density is low in the middle area of the solid circular disc
monopole antenna. Therefore, the current will not effect if the middle area of the solid circular disc monopole antenna is removed.
In this way, the effective path of the surface current will become
longer. In this antenna, the effective length of current path is
increased by inscribing triangle in solid circular disc. This resulted,
the rst resonance frequency will be decreased and the size of
the antenna will be reduced. To achieve the UWB characteristic,
the fractal structure can be added to increase the resonance frequency in high frequencies by adding resonance elements in solid

Fig. 2. Proposed fractal antenna with coplanar feed.

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Fig. 3. Simulated results of proposed fractal antenna with respect to each iteration.

is heavily dependent on the iteration number, gap between

patch and ground, gap between feed and ground, ground length,
ground width and the diameter of the circular disc. So these
parameters of antennas should be optimized for maximum bandwidth.

5.1. Effect of each iteration

First, antenna has been simulated with respect to each iteration, i.e. for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th iteration. The simulated results
of these iterations are shown in Fig. 3. It is clear in simulated
result, the rst iterative antenna gives the poor impedance matching throughout the band. It is also observed for second iterative
antenna, the impedance matching over the operating frequency
band is improved drastically. For the third and fourth iterative
antennas, the impedance matching is further improved. The fourth
iterative fractal antenna gives the impedance matching throughout
the band.

5.2. Effect of gap between patch and ground

It is noticed that current density is mainly distributed on the
upper edge of ground plane and along the edge of circular disc,
which reveals that gap between patch and ground has a role on
performance of the antenna. This parameter, i.e. gap between patch
and ground plane (h) has been optimized for proper coupling from
feed line to patch which effects the UWB characteristic. The proposed fractal monopole antenna has been simulated for various
values of gap from 0.3 mm to 0.6 mm with the step of 0.1 mm. The
simulated results have been shown in Fig. 4 for these values of gap.
It has been observed from results that gap (h) between ground and
patch effects the lower end frequency and bandwidth. It is also
clear from the simulated results, as the gap h decreases, low end
frequency is almost constant but the high end frequency increases.
So, there is evident increase in the BW as gap decreases. The optimized gap (h) is achieved h = 0.4 mm. The proposed fractal antenna
has been fabricated with gap h = 0.4 mm, 50  feed with W = 3.2 mm
and g1 = 0.5 mm.

Fig. 4. Simulated results of proposed fractal antenna for various gap (h) between patch and ground plane.

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71

Fig. 5. Simulated results of proposed fractal for various gap (g1) between feed width and ground plane.

5.2.1. Effect of the gap between feed and ground

The gap between the feed width and ground is also important
for proper matching. Because, variation of gap effects the input
impedance of antenna. The proposed fractal antenna has been simulated for various value of the gap between feed and ground plane
(g1). The simulated results are shown in Fig. 5. The effect of the
gap is clearly visible in the simulated results. The proper matching throughout the band is achieved by optimizing the gap from
0.3 mm to 0.7 mm with the step of 0.1 mm. The optimum value of
gap has been achieved 0.5 mm. Initially value of feed width and gap
for optimization have been taken W = 3.2 mm and g1 = 0.3 mm. In
the optimization, these values have been achieved W = 3.2 mm and
g1 = 0.5 mm.

affecting the antenna impedance and consequently the BW. Large

length of ground plane means longer CPW-feed line. In monopole
antenna the ground length should be around /4 or nearly equal to
circular diameter. The effect of ground length has been simulated
for various value of ground length as shown in Fig. 6. It is observed
from the simulated results as the length approaches near to the
diameter, it gives the good impedance matching the throughout
the band. In optimization ground length is varied from 28.364 mm
to 34.368 mm with the step of 2.0 mm. The rst resonant frequency
of the monopole antenna is determined by the diameter of the simple circular disc. For simple circular disc antenna, it behaves like a
quarter wave monopole antenna.

5.4. Effect of the ground plane width

5.3. Effect of the ground plane length
Other than this, we have also seen that the ground plane size
especially the length of the ground plane is also an important factor

Here, the width of the ground plane of proposed fractal

monopole antenna has also been optimized and its effect on the
antenna bandwidth is observed. The proposed antenna has been

Fig. 6. Simulated result of proposed fractal antenna for various ground length.

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Fig. 7. Simulated result of proposed fractal antenna for various ground width.

simulated for various ground plane width (GW) from 24.9 mm to

39.9 mm with step of 5.0 mm. The simulated results with respect
to various ground width (GW) are shown in Fig. 7. It is observed
as the ground width increases the rst resonant frequency shifted
to lower frequency side. For proper matching and compact size of
antenna, the optimum ground width is achieved 25 mm by xing
all others optimized parameters.
5.5. Effect of the diameter of circular disc
From Fig. 2, again reveals that the current is mainly distributed
along the edge of the circular disc. This indicates that the rst resonant frequency is associated with the diameter of the circular disc.
Here the effect of the dimension of the circular disc diameter has
been simulated as well as experimentally measured. The experimental return loss versus frequency for various diameter 15 mm,
18.4 mm, 30 mm and 80 mm of the circular disc monopole antenna
has been shown in Fig. 8. As the diameter of circular disc increases,
the rst resonant frequency shifted towards lower frequency side.

The proposed fractal antenna has been constructed with 30 mm

diameter of circular disc.

6. Experimental results
The proposed inscribed triangle circular fractal antenna is
shown in Fig. 2 with optimized dimension. The all iterative
inscribed triangle circular fractal antenna has been fabricated and
tested. These iterative antennas have been designed on substrate
r = 4.3, thickness 1.53 mm, GL = 28 mm, GW = 25 mm, h = 0.4 mm
and g1 = 0.5 mm. These antennas have been tested using vector
network analyzer R&S ZVA 40. The experimental results of all iterative antennas have combined using vector network analyzer as
shown in Fig. 9. It is observed from experimental results that 1st
iterative antenna offers very poor impedance bandwidth. In 2nd
iterative antenna, the impedance bandwidth improves drastically.
In the third and fourth iterative antennas, impedance bandwidth
improves further throughout the band. The experimental results

Fig. 8. Experimental results of simple circular disc monopole antenna for 80 mm, 30 mm 18.4 mm and 15 mm diameter.

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73

Fig. 9. Experimental results of each iterative antenna and simulated result of proposed antenna.

of proposed fractal antenna exhibits the excellent ultra wide

impedance bandwidth of 12.75 GHz (from 2.25 GHz to 15 GHz) corresponds to 147.83% impedance bandwidth at VSWR 2:1. The measured return loss versus frequency of this fractal antenna has been
shown in Fig. 9. This antenna satises the bandwidth requirement
of Ultra wide band communication system, i.e. from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz.
The simulated results of proposed antenna with respect to each
iteration are shown in Fig, 3. A good agreement between experimental and simulated results is observed except some slight variation. This may be due to the tolerance in manufacturing, uncertainty
of the thickness and/or the dielectric constant of the substrate and
lower quality of SMA connector (VSWR = 1.3), larger tan = 0.02 of
the substrate and soldering effects of an SMA connector.
The peak gain, directivity and radiation efciency of the proposed antenna are simulated using HFSS10. The simulated results
are shown in Fig. 10. It is observed peak gain of antenna is less than

5 dBi throughout the FCC band (3.110.6 GHz). It is also observed

that radiation efciency of the antenna decreases as the frequency
increases. This is due to the high loss tangent tan = 0.0221 of the
substrate.
7. Experimental radiation patterns
Radiation characteristics of the inscribed triangle fractal
antenna have been measured in in-house anechoic chamber using
antenna measurement system. The measured radiation patterns
in azimuth plane (H-plane) have been calculated at selective frequencies 3.0 GHz, 4.275 GHz, 6.3 GHz and 10.2 GHz as shown in
Fig. 11. The radiation patterns in E-plane have also been measured at various selective frequencies 3.0 GHz, 4.275 GHz, 6.3 GHz,
10.2 GHz and 11.2 GHz as shown in Fig. 12. The H-plane radiation patterns are almost omnidirectional, and the E-plane radiation

Fig. 10. Simulated peak gain, directivity and radiation efciency of the proposed fractal antenna.

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R. Kumar et al. / Int. J. Electron. Commun. (AE) 66 (2012) 6875

Fig. 11. H-plane experimental radiation patterns of proposed fractal antenna at

frequencies 3.0 GHz, 4.275 GHz, 6.3 GHz and 10.2 GHz.

Fig. 13. Experimental cross polarization of proposed fractal antenna at frequencies

4.125 GHz, 6.525 GHz and 10.5 GHz.

8. Group delay of antenna

patterns are nearly bidirectional. It can be seen that the radiation
patterns of the proposed antenna are stable over the operating
frequency range. The experimental cross polarization at frequencies 4.125 GHz, 6.525 GHz and 10.5 GHz has been measured as
shown in Fig. 13. It has been observed cross to co polarization
ratio at 4.125 GHz is better than 15 dBi and reduces to 5 dBi at
14.56 GHz. The proposed antenna gain in operating band meets the
requirement for FCC dened UWB frequency band from 3.1 GHz to
10.6 GHz. It has been observed that antenna gain is less than 5 dBi in
frequency range 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz. Such type of antenna is very
useful for UWB communication system.

Fig. 12. E-plane experimental radiation patterns of proposed fractal antenna at

frequencies 3 GHz, 4.275 GHz, 6.3 GHz, 10.2 GHz and 11.2 GHz.

The group delay is an important parameter for UWB system. It

indicates a quantity of a pulse distortion and far-eld phase linearity. The group delay is dened as
g =

2f

where is the far-eld phase and f is frequency.

The group delay of proposed fractal antenna has been measured
using two fabricated identical antennas. These two identical antennas are put face to face at distance 30 cm as shown in Fig. 14. The
measured group delay is nearly constant throughout the pass band
as shown in Fig. 15. It indicates that proposed fractal antenna can
provide quite good pulse-handling capability as demanded by modern UWB communication systems. Such type of antenna is very

Fig. 14. Experimental set up to measure the group delay.

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75

Fig. 15. Measured group delay of proposed fractal antenna.

useful for UWB communication system, microwave imaging and

precision positioning system.
9. Conclusions
In this paper, a novel CPW-feed inscribed triangle circular fractal antenna has been proposed and implemented experimentally.
The proposed monopole fractal antenna offers UWB characteristics from 2.25 GHz to 15 GHz at VSWR 2:1. It is observed that
the radiation patterns of antenna are omnidirectional in H-plane
and bidirectional in E-plane over the entire operating bandwidth.
The measured group delay of proposed fractal antenna is almost
constant throughout the band. The measurement results are in
close agreement with the simulation results. The proposed fractal
antenna is compact, low prole, and offers very large impedance
bandwidth required for next generation UWB system. The use of
coplanar ground plane makes the design conformal and more suitable for the miniaturized applications. Such type of antenna can be
useful for UWB system as well as suitable for various military and
commercial wideband applications.
Acknowledgements
Authors are grateful to the VC and Pro-VC and Dean of Defence
Institute of Advanced Technology (Deemed University), Pune, India
for permitting to publish this work. Author is also thankful to the
reviewers for suggestion to improve the manuscript.

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