UHF Fractal Antennas

S.D. Emxi*. R. Libonati. and J.W. Culver Kaytheon I SO I 72 Street North St. Petershurg. FL 337 IO

D.H. Werner. P.L. Weriier. and S. Munrmareddy Department of Electrical Engineering The Pcnnsylvania State University University Park. PA I6802

Abstract

- Thc u b e of fractal anteriiia techniques tu reduce the size o f o UHF linear dipole i s investigated and discussed. Frcictal designs are derived using :iii enlpii-leal method ;ind

a genetic algorithm based method. While hoth achieve siLc reduction. the latter design shows the most promise from : I ske rcduction and dc\ign mcthudology standpoint. siiice siiiiiilation is inherent i n the design process and discretcly loaded designs are possible.

1.

Introduction

To be an efficient radiator an anteiinas c i / c must he an ;ippi-eciahle portion of it wavelength. Therefore. antennas that operate iit IOW frequcncies. such a s tliusc found in the UHF band. are physically very large. This large size hinders their integration into smaller hand-held or man-wearable communication^ equipment (the present trend In military communications). 1. I S i x Reductiori Tliroiqh D i e l e m x Loudiuji The must common way to reduce the ~ i z e of an antenna element is to load i t with a material that has a high permittivity or dielectric constant. This dielectric loading reduces the propagation velocity for a wave in that medium. and consequently. increases the loaded elenientu effective electrical length. While dielectric loading can effectively reduce the size of an element. i t does come at a price. One must consider the changes in electrical properties associated with a given amount of dielectric loading. At a minimum. dielectric loading reduces the bandwidth and efficiency of an antenna (as well as adding weight and cost). The amount of bandwidth and efficiency lost w i l l depend upon the matcrial properties of the dielectric chosen. and the amount of reduction attempted. For very narrow band elements such as microstrip patches. the loss of bandwidth coupled with inanufactunng and material tolerances can be a real production problem. For this reason. a broadband element that requires little or no, dielectric loading could be beneficial.

1.2 Si:e Reductioii Usiin,q Fructul Techniques

Fractal antenna techniques were investigated as an alternative route to realizing a smaller antenna without a great loss in bandwidth or efficiency. This paper highlights results o f an initial investigation into the application of fractal geometries to U H F antenna design. The investigation entailed building a standard dipole and a fractal dipole element that operated within each o f the following frequency bands: 243 M H z to 270 M H z (lower band) 292 MHz to 3 18 M H z (upper band)
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The fractal used for the upper band was empirically derived. The second fractal (lower band) was designed using the genetic optimization techniques discussed in [ I ] (with no reactive loading and relatively few constraints).

2. Fractal Antenna Techniques

There are a number of ways in which one might visualize the creation of a fractal antenna. This study has considered the creation of a fractal wire dipole by a "bending" process. This process produces an element that is selfsimilar in nature and smaller in size. This process is attractive because o f the potential to produce smaller elements without sacrificing bandwidth or efficiency. It has been suggested that fractal structures of the type described may provide size reduction and bandwidth enhancement [2.3.3].
An example of the bending method i s

1S'

2"'

3'C

shown i n Figure I . It is illustr:ited by taking a common wire element and recursively "bending" that element into a self-similar fractal pattern that is shown progressing through its I". 2"". and 3"' iteration.

Figure 1: Example of Fractal

"Bending"

The underlying mechanisms that account for the elrment', size reduction may include the added length attributed to the meandering of the conductor and/or reactive loadins (depending upon the specific type of fractal structui-e chosen). The added bandwidth expected from the fractal element is generally attributed to the fact that the resulting structure consists of many scaled. self-similar "cells" or building blocks.

3. Fractal Design and Measurement

Four separate dipole elements were fabricated. Each of the elenients utilized 0.125" square aluminum conductors. The BALanced to Unbalanced (BALUN) transformers were constructed using a ferrite core and a twisted wire pair (28-gauge wire) soldered to pads on a small piece of milled FRI. This BALUN exhibited a maximum of I .3 dB of loss and 8 degrees of phase error over a band that ranged from less than 100 MHz through approxiniately I GHz.
3. I Fi-u(.tu/ile,\i#ii u.sin,y eiiipiriu,i/ m d i o i l

Figure 2 shows an empirically derived. 2"" iteration UHF fractal antenna design. The tipto-tip length is 15.5". This represents a l O - l S % size reduction over the - 1 8 " long (tip-totip) srandnrd dipole designed to cover the same band (similar to the top eleineiit of Figure 21.

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Figure 2: Empincally Denved Znd Iteration Fractal Dipole & Standard Dipole

GO Fractal 4
STD (low band) ----r

Empirical Fractal

Empirical Fractal STD (high band)

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J
100
200

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Frequency (MHz)

400

500

Figure 3: Measured and Simulated Return Loss Data

Figure 3 shows the measured and simulated return loss for each of the fractal and standard (STD) dipoles. The high band results can he summarized as follows: Standard dipole: spanned 289-3 I9 MHz - a 9.9% impedance bandwidth, Empirical fractal dipole: spanned 292-375 MHz - a 13.7% impedance bandwidth

3.2 Fructul cle.\ip usirig griieric uiprirhni

Figure 4 shows a UHF fractal element designed using grnetic optimization. The t~p-to-tip length is 14.3. This represents a 34% size reduction over the 21.8 long (tip-to-tip) standard dipole designed to cover the same hand (top eleinrnt in F i y r e 4). The low band results (return loss from Figure 3 ) can he sunimnrized as follows: Standard dipole: spanned 238-263 MHz - a 10% impedance bandwidth. GO fractal dipole: spanned 237-261 MHz - a 9.610 impedance bandwidth

Impedance bandwidth is measured relative to a -9.5 dB or better return loss

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Figure 4: Genetically Optimized (GO) Fractal Dipole & Standard Dipole

-15 -13 l :

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:
e Empirical Fractal
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Angle (W)
Figure 5 shows siniulsted pattern data for the empirical and genetically optimized (GO) fractals. The difference in peak gain is 2.04 versus I .6 dBi.

4. Conclusions
It has been shown that it is possible to reduce the length of dipole antennas using fractal patterns. Evidence was presented to support the idea that this size reduction comes with little adverse effect on perfomiance. It is believed that funher use of the genetic algorithm as a tool for designing fractal antrnnas will lead to even smaller designs. possibly through the use of discretely loaded elements.

References
I.
Werner. D.H. et. al.. Genetically Englneered Dual-Band Fractal Antennas, submitted to the 2001 AP-S Symposium. Cohen. N.. Fractal Antenna Applications in Wireless Telecommunications, Proceedings of Electronics Industries Forum of New England. 1997, pp. 43-49. Werner. D.H.. and R. Mittra, Frontiers in Elecrromqnrtics. IEEE Press. 2000. Hohlfeld. R.G.. and N. Cohen, Self-similarity and The Geometric Requirements for Frequency Independence in Antennae, January 17. 1999.
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