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Multiple fractal-shaped slots-based

UWB antenna with triple-band notch
functionality
a

Abhik Gorai , Anirban Karmakar , Manimala Pal & Rowdra

a

Ghatak
a

Microwave and Antenna Research Laboratory, Electronics and

Communication Engineering Department, National Institute of
Technology Durgapur, MG Avenue, Durgapur 713 209, India
b

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering,

Netaji Subhas Engineering College, Kolkata, India
c

Department of ECE, NFET, NSHM Knowledge Campus Durgapur,

Durgapur 713212, India
Published online: 23 Oct 2013.

To cite this article: Abhik Gorai, Anirban Karmakar, Manimala Pal & Rowdra Ghatak , Journal of
Electromagnetic Waves and Applications (2013): Multiple fractal-shaped slots-based UWB antenna
with triple-band notch functionality, Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, DOI:
10.1080/09205071.2013.852486
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09205071.2013.852486

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Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, 2013

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09205071.2013.852486

Multiple fractal-shaped slots-based UWB antenna with triple-band

notch functionality

Downloaded by [Indian Institute of Technology - Delhi] at 04:25 24 October 2013

Abhik Goraia, Anirban Karmakarb, Manimala Palc and Rowdra Ghataka*

a
Microwave and Antenna Research Laboratory, Electronics and Communication Engineering
Department, National Institute of Technology Durgapur, MG Avenue, Durgapur 713 209, India;
b
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Netaji Subhas Engineering
College, Kolkata, India; cDepartment of ECE, NFET, NSHM Knowledge Campus Durgapur,
Durgapur 713212, India

(Received 3 July 2013; accepted 3 October 2013)

A planar elliptical shape band-notched UWB antenna with multiple fractal-shaped
slots and a Sierpinski fractal curve-shaped ring resonator at the back of the substrate
is introduced in this paper. The proposed antenna exhibits a triple-band notch
characteristic. Koch fractal slot etched from the radiator is responsible for creating
notched band centred at 5.5 GHz for wireless local area network rejection. The
Minkowski fractal slots in the ground planes create rejection characteristics at
8.1 GHz to avoid interference with X-band uplink satellite communication systems.
The RFID rejection band centred at 6.8 GHz is achieved by using a Sierpinski
fractal curve-shaped ring resonator at the back of the substrate. Sierpinski fractal slot
of third iteration on the radiator contributes to an impedance bandwidth of
2.812 GHz with VSWR < 2 by improving matching at lower frequencies except at
three notched bands. The antenna gain varies from 1.5 to 4 dBi over the band.
Stable radiation patterns are obtained throughout its operating frequency. The
antenna has a compact size of 41 mm 45 mm.
Keywords: fractal antenna; UWB antenna; fractal resonator and band notch antenna

1. Introduction
In 2002, the Federal Communications Commission [1] released the regulation for UWB
technology allocating the frequency spectrum from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz for UWB.[24]
Since then, UWB communication systems have received great attention in the wireless
world due to their merits such as high data rate, small emission power and low cost for
short range access and remote sensing applications. However, within the allocated
spectrum for UWB, there are some other narrow band communication systems, such as
wireless local area network (WLAN) in the 5.155.825 GHz band, RFID communication system centred at 6.8 GHz and satellite communication system operating in
7.98.4 GHz range. Hence to avoid potential interference, additional lter circuitry is
required but resulting in increase in total dimension of the antenna, making it incompatible with modern wireless systems. To overcome this disadvantage, various UWB
antennas with band notch characteristics achieved by cutting slots either in the radiator
or in the ground plane such as a U-shaped slot,[5,6] an arc-shaped slot,[7] v-shaped
slot,[8] Hilbert shaped slot [9,10] and, using partial annular slot,[11] using modied
*Corresponding author. Email addresses: rowdraghatak@yahoo.com; rowdra.ghatak@ece.nitdgp.ac.in
2013 Taylor & Francis

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A. Gorai et al.

fractal shape slot,[12] using semi-hexagonal slot [13] or by introducing parasitic

strips.[14]
In this paper, a novel CPW-fed elliptical-shaped band-notched UWB antenna is
proposed where the radiator consists of a Sierpinski fractal curve-shaped [15] slot. The
notch band at 5.5 GHz is achieved by etching Koch fractal slot [15] of second iteration
on the radiator patch, the notch band at 8.1 GHz is achieved by two Minkowski fractal
[15] slot of second iteration realized on either side of the feed line on ground plane
and the notch band centred at 6.8 GHz is achieved by using a Sierpinski fractal curveshaped ring resonator at the backside of the substrate. The proposed antenna exhibits a
bandwidth ranging from 2.8 to 12 GHz with three-notched bands centred at 5.5, 6.8
and 8.1 GHz. The three-notched bands can avoid interference with WLAN, RFID and
satellite communication systems. The paper is arranged as follows. Section 2 describes
the details of the design and parametric study which is followed by result and
discussion and conclusion in Sections 3 and 4, respectively.
2. Antenna design and parametric study
The geometry of the proposed triple band-notched UWB antenna is shown in Figure 1.
The basic radiator patch consists of an elliptical patch. The proposed antenna is printed
on Taconic TLY-5 substrate with the thickness of 0.8 mm and the dielectric constant of
2.2. The height of the initial elliptical monopole is chosen to be 18 mm which is g/4
at the lowest frequency of 3.1 GHz of the operating band. By etching a Sierpinski fractal curve slot of third iteration, the lowest frequency of the operating band shifts to 2.8
from 3 GHz and also resonance characteristics at lower frequencies is improved which
is clear from the comparative study of S11(dB) as depicted in Figure 2. This is due to
the increment of effective electrical path due to fractal shape. Koch fractal slot of second iteration is etched out from the radiator to create a WLAN rejection band centred
at 5.5 GHz. While the notch band centred at 8.1 GHz is obtained by etching out two
symmetrical Minkowski fractal slots of second iteration from the ground planes.

Figure 1. (a) Geometry of the proposed antenna. (b) Geometry of Koch fractal slot. (c) Geometry
of Minkowski fractal slot.

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Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications

Figure 2.

Comparison of S11 (dB) with and without second iterated Sierpinski fractal slot.

Figure 3. (a) Koch fractal curves for various iteration. (b) Minkowski fractal curves for rst,
second and third iteration. (c) Sierpinski fractal curves for rst three iterations.

Finally, the notch band centred at 6.8 GHz is achieved by using a second iterated
Sierpinski fractal curve-shaped ring resonator at the backside of the substrate as shown
in Figure 1(a). The various iterations of Koch fractal curve is shown in Figure 3(a),
while Figure 3(b) explains the formation of Minkowski fractal curve for rst three
iterations and nally the algorithm for generating Sierpinski curve is in Figure 3(c).[15]
The antenna was analysed using commercial CST Microwave Studio.[16]
The effective length of the Koch fractal slot etched out from the radiator is chosen
using (1) and (2) and then optimized using CST Microwave StudioTM. The width and
location of the slot is also adjusted to exactly tune the rejection band. f1 in (2) stands
for centre frequency of WLAN system which is 5.5 GHz. The Koch fractal slot in radiator of the antenna consists of 16 identical segments each of length L1 and thickness
TS1. Parametric studies involving length L1 and thickness TS1 is depicted in Figure 4(a)
and (b), respectively .The parametric study shows that as the length of the segment L1
increases, the notched band is shifted towards lower frequency without affecting the
other notched bands. On the contrary, when the slot width TS1 increases, the notched
band shifts towards higher frequency. The parametric study shows that the optimum
segment length L1 and width TS1 for notch frequency of 5.5 GHz is 1.45 and 0.25 mm,
respectively.

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A. Gorai et al.

Figure 4. Effect on VSWR due to Koch fractal shaped slot for (a) Different values of L1. (b)
Different values of Ts1.

Figure 5. Effect on VSWR due to Minkowski fractal shaped slot for (a) Different values of L2
(b) Different values of Ts2.

L K 16  L1
L K

c
p
2  f1  eeff

(1)
(2)

Minkowski fractal slots in the ground plane follows the similar theory as Koch fractal
slot as explained earlier. The effective length of the Minkowski fractal slot is extracted
using (3) and (4) followed by optimization. The centre frequency 8.1 GHz is depicted
by f2 in (4). The width and position of the slots are adjusted and optimized to tune the
rejection band at 8.1 GHz. The Minkowski fractal slot consist of 27 identical segments
each of length L2 and thickness Ts2. Parametric studies involving various length L2 and
thickness Ts2 are depicted, respectively, in Figure 5(a) and (b). The parametric studies
show that notched band shifts towards lower frequencies as length L2 is increased while
the notched band shifts towards higher frequencies as thickness Ts2 is increased, keeping
other notched band intact. The parametric study shows that the optimum segment length
L2 and width Ts2 for notch frequency of 8.1 GHz is 0.66 and 0.25 mm, respectively.
L M 27  L2
L M

c
p
2  f2  eeff

(3)
(4)

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Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications

Figure 6. Effect on VSWR due to Sierpinski curve shaped fractal slot for (a) Different values
of L3. (b) Different values of Ts3.

Table 1.

Parameters of the proposed antenna.

Antenna parameter
Ls
Ws
Wg
Wo
Lg
Gp
a
Rx
Ry

Value (mm)

Sierpinski ring resonator parameters

Value (mm)

41
51
21.3
1.524
20.75
0.75
1
13.5
9

h
L3
Ts3
Slot parameters
L1
TS1
L2
Ts2

0.75
2
0.25
Value (mm)
1.45
0.25
0.66
0.25

The Sierpinski fractal curve ring resonator at the back of the substrate is made of 20
identical segments of length L3 and thickness Ts3. The total length of the fractal slit
taken can be explained using (5) and (6), where f3 in (6) is the centre frequency of the
RFID rejection band at 6.8 GHz. The parametric studies involving various values of L3
and Ts3 as depicted in Figure 6 shows that notch frequency decreases as L3 increases
and notch frequency increases as Ts3 increases. Finally, the optimum value of L3 and
Ts3 is chosen to be 2 and 0.25 mm, respectively.
L R 20  L3
L R

f3 

c
p
eeff

(5)
(6)

The gap between the radiation patch and the ground plane is Gp. An optimized value
of Gp is obtained as 0.75 mm. The optimized CPW centre strip width of CPW feed is
1.524 mm. The nal values of all the antenna parameters are listed in Table 1.
3. Results and discussion
The antenna layout is fabricated as per the dimensions given in Table 1. Figure 7(a)
shows the fabricated prototype. The measured VSWR and simulated VSWR results are
in close agreement as depicted in Figure 7(b). The radiator patch consist of third

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A. Gorai et al.

Figure 7. (a) Photograpgh of fabricated prototype. (b) Comparison of simulated and measured
VSWR of the proposed antenna.

Figure 8.

Current distribution on the antenna at (a) 5.5 GHz (b) 6.8 GHz (c) 8.1 GHz.

iterated Sierpinski fractal slot which results in better matching at lower frequencies. In
this work, notching is done using Koch fractal slot and minkowski fractal slot for 5.5
and 8.1 GHz rejection band, respectively, the algorithm of which is simpler as compared to [13]. The uniqueness of the antenna lies in achieving band notch characteristics at 8.1 GHz by using closed-loop fractal resonator at the back of the substrate as
shown in Figure 2(a). Resonator at the back of the substrate does not affect the current
distribution at the radiator or ground planes unlike other fractal slots. Figure 7(b) shows
the simulated and measured VSWR of the antenna. The measurement is performed
using Rhode and Schwarz ZVA40VNA. It is seen that the simulated and measured
VSWR closely resembles. Slight disagreement is caused due to fabrication tolerance
and connector losses. The antenna shows wide impedance bandwidth extending from
2.8 to 12 GHz. The current distribution shown in Figure 8 explains the notching characteristics. Current distribution shows the formation of standing waves at notch frequencies. It is observed that current density is maximum around Koch fractal slot at
5.5 GHz as shown in Figure 8(a), whereas at 8.1 GHz, current is concentrated around
the Minkowski fractal slots as depicted in Figure 8(b). Finally at 6.8 GHz, current is
concentrated more around the ring resonator at the back of the substrate as depicted in
Figure 8(c).
For UWB applications, the antenna is required to have omnidirectional radiation
pattern. The measured cross-polar and copolar radiation pattern at frequencies 3.1, 7.5
and 10 GHz are depicted in Figure 9. It is observed that at lower frequencies, the

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Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications

Figure 9. Measured co-polar and cross-polar patterns of the proposed antenna at (a) 3.1 GHz
(b) 7.5 GHz (c) 10 GHz.

E-plane patterns are like conventional monopole, while at higher frequencies, some
ripples are observed in the pattern, which is due to higher-order modes. Hence, the
antenna exhibits satisfactory omnidirectional radiation characteristics and copolar and
cross-polar levels have nearly 20 dB isolation throughout its operating band. The
measured gain of the antenna is shown in Figure 10. It shows that the gain is almost
at except at rejection bands where gain decreases abruptly. The gain varies from 1.5
to 4 dBi at the passband. Moreover, the distortion less transmission nature of the
antenna is conrmed by studying the measured group delay characteristics as shown in

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A. Gorai et al.

Figure 10.

Measured gain of the proposed antenna.

Figure 11.

Measured group delay of the proposed antenna.

Figure 11. It is observed that group delay excursion is within 1 ns except at notch
frequencies. This ensures satisfactory time domain characteristics and distortion less
transmission.
4. Conclusion
This paper presents a novel fractal triple band rejection monopole ultrawideband
antenna. By incorporating Sierpinski curved fractal in the radiator, impedance matching
at lower frequencies is improved. The impedance bandwidth ranges from 2.8 to
12 GHz. By using Koch fractal slots in the main radiator, the antenna shows good suppression ability at the 5.5 GHz WLAN. Minkowski fractal slots in the ground planes
contribute to rejection band at 8.1 GHz satellite communication band and Sierpinski
fractal ring resonator at the back of the substrate accounts to rejection band at 6.8 GHz
RFID band. The slots follow fractal geometry due to which the area occupied is minimized and the surface current on the antenna remains unperturbed. The antenna gain
varies from 1.5 to 4 dBi over the band with dips at the rejection frequencies. The group
delay excursion remains within 1 ns over the UWB region except at the rejection bands,
hence the antenna remains distortion less. Also, the radiation characteristics suit UWB
communication criterion of omnidirectional pattern.

Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications

Acknowledgement
Rowdra Ghatak is grateful to Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India for supporting this research under Young Scientist scheme vide sanction No. SR/FTP/ETA-0033/2010.

Downloaded by [Indian Institute of Technology - Delhi] at 04:25 24 October 2013

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