International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 3 Issue 4, April - 2014

Analysis of Koch Snowflake Fractal Antenna for

Multiband Application

Solanki Neha A. Piyush C. Dalsania Hiren J. Kathiriya

Student, Dept. of ECE Lecturer, Dept. of ECE Asst. Prof., Dept. of ECE
R. K University Dr. J. N. Mehta Govt. Polytechnic R. K University
Rajkot, India Amreli, India Rajkot, India

Abstract— This paper discusses the Koch snowflake

behavior of the fractal antenna. The antenna has been designed
for increasing outer perimeter of triangular shape patch by
using self-similarity property and analyzed performance on
multiband .There are number of example of self-similarity and
space filling property of fractal antenna. We are examining
number of iteration by the designing Koch snowflake for
different resonant frequency.

Keywords— fractal antenn; iterative method; multi band;

I. INTRODUCTION
The Koch snowflake it became an important sample of
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fractal set. The objective of this paper is to be design and,
simulate Koch snowflake fractal antenna. The behavior and
properties of an antenna are investigated. Multiband
operation is becoming increasingly popular in several
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practical applications including next-generation wireless

terminals. Fractals antennas that are small in size and simple
in structure are typically demanded for such applications [1].
Fractals antennas are widely preferred for wireless
communication systems as they are of small size, light
weight, low profile, low cost, and are easy to fabricate and
assemble [2]. The Koch snowflake geometry drew the
attention of researchers as it is smaller than other patch
geometries [3].

II. GEOMETRY OF KOCH SNOWFLAKE

A. Koch Snowflake
Fractal investigated in this study is based on a Koch
snowflake. Comparisons can be drawn here between the
Periodic Patterned designs highlighted in fig. (1), it was
known as a Koch snowflake fractal. It originates from a plain
square patch and subsequent iterations produce a cross-like
fractal patch with ever more fine details at its edges such a
design has several parameters which can be varied such as the
depth and size of the removed segments [3]. Fig. 2. Design Steps construction of a Koch snowflake fractal

B. Self-Similarity Design
As shown in Fig. (2) Increasing outer perimeter of
triangular patch according to the fractal formula of regular
self-similarity pattern.

Fig. 1. Basic Steps construction of a Koch snowflake fractal

IJERTV3IS041857 www.ijert.org 2150

 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 3 Issue 4, April - 2014

Ansoft Corporation koch_1 HFSSDesign1

III. ANTENNA DESIGN Name X Y Curve Info
m1 7.1706 -15.7420 dB(S(WavePort1,WavePort1))
Many variation are possible with square size of patch -2.00 m2 8.3110 -18.6584 Setup1 : Sw eep1

antenna dimension A’s value changes as well as fractal steps

m3 9.2676 -10.6818
-4.00 m4 9.7090 -13.2439
m5 11.1806 -16.0857
iteration factor [3]. Here we take 1/3 iteration factor with

dB(S(WavePort1,WavePort1))
-6.00 m6 12.4682 -15.9546

dimension A= 9cm. Here we describe up to 4 iteration step -8.00

m7 14.0502 -17.7740

are Koch fractal geometry [4]. -10.00

m3

The length of the boundary of S (n) at the nth iteration of -12.00

m4
the construction is 3*(4/3) ^n*s, where s denotes the length of -14.00

each side of the original equilateral triangle [5]. Therefore the -16.00
m1
m5

Koch snowflake has a perimeter of infinite length -18.00

m2

The area of S (n) is 7.00 8.00 9.00

Freq [GHz]
10.00 11.00 12.00

3s 2  n
3  4k 1  Fig. 4. Iteration -1 of Koch snowflake Fractal Antenna’s Return Loss
 
1  
4  k 1 9k 
B. Simulation Result For Iteration 2
Letting n go to infinity shows that the area of the Koch
2
snowflake is 2 3s .
5

Substrates Material R. T. duroid epoxy having

permittivity (εr) of 4 Dimension: 110*100*1.5 mm Patch
Design shapes changes according to fractal variation A=9 cm
Feeding: Commercial coaxial dimension used and feeding
position center of the patch.

IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT AND SIMULATION

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A. Simulation Result For Iteration 1

Simulation result of individual iteration step by step with
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S11 (Return loss in dB), VSWR radiation pattern and reading

Fig. 5. Iteration -2 of Koch snowflake Fractal Antenna
tables
The structure of Koch snowflake fractal antenna with first
iteration is as follows and on simulating the above structure
with the help of Ansoft HFSS, the following results were
Ansoft
NameCorporation
X Y koch_2 HFSSDesign1
obtained. m1 7.0970 -25.1880
Curve Info
m2 8.4582 -12.1860
dB(S(WavePort1,WavePort1))
m3 9.8194 -13.9347 Setup1 : Sw eep1
m4 11.5853 -14.2963
-5.00
dB(S(WavePort1,WavePort1))

-10.00
m2

m3 m4
-15.00

-20.00

-25.00 m1

7.00 8.00 9.00 10.00 11.00 12.00

Freq [GHz]

Fig. 6. Iteration -2 of Koch snowflake Fractal Antenna’s Return Loss

Fig. 3. Iteration -1 of Koch snowflake Fractal Antenna

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 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
Vol. 3 Issue 4, April - 2014

C. Simulation Result For Iteration 3 TABLE I.

Antenna Parameters
Iteration Return
Resonant freq. Peak Peak
VSWR Loss
(GHz) gain Directivity
(dB)

7.17 1.4 -15 5.17 4.29

1st 8.31 1.26 -18 5.97 5.54

11.18 1.3 -16 1.05 4.69

7.09 1.11 -25 17.65 6.85

8.45 1.65 -12 0.80 4.79

2nd
9.8 1.5 -13 1.59 8.05

11.58 1.47 -14 4.39 14.86

6.80 1.14 -23 12.63 6.38

8.23 1.17 -22 2.96 6.94

Fig. 7. Iteration -3 of Koch snowflake Fractal Antenna
3rd 9.12 1.04 -32 6.91 16.8

10.33 1.17 -21 2 8.73

Ansoft
NameCorporation
X Y koch_3 HFSSDesign1
m1 6.8027 -23.5206
Curve Info
m2 8.2375 -22.0532
dB(S(WavePort1,WavePort1)) 10.88 1.11 -25 1.60 5.95
m3 9.1204 -32.3374 Setup1 : Sw eep1
-5.00
m4 10.3344 -21.8006
m5 10.8863 -25.4495

-10.00
V. CONCLUSION
dB(S(WavePort1,WavePort1))

-15.00
The resonant frequency increases with increase in the
-20.00
number of iterations. The multiband behavior is obtained as
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m1
m2 m4
the numbers of iterations are increased .The return losses
-25.00 m5
improve as the number of iterations increase. The bandwidth
-30.00
of the antenna gets increased too with increase in the number
m3
of iterations. Improvement in VSWR is also observed with
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6.00 7.00 8.00 9.00

Freq [GHz]
10.00
Fig. 8. Iteration -3 of Koch snowflake Fractal Antenna’s Return Loss
Fig. 9. E-Field Distribution of Koch snowflake Fractal Antenna
Simulation results of various iteration steps shown on
above figures. Incremental properies of koch snowflake
gives increasing in resonanant frequency observed result
shown in table 1.
11.00 increase in iterations. The fractal geometry effect on patch
antenna has been analyzed. This Koch snowflake antenna is a
good example of the properties of fractal incremental
boundary patch antennas. As the fractal iteration increases,
perimeter of patch increases and effective area of antenna
increases with improve multiband application. . The radiator
is now resonant at more frequencies. It gives multiband
properties to fractal geometry antenna with directive patterns.
This behavior is obtained with a coaxial feeding scheme. So,
fractal boundary patch antennas are an interesting
replacement in the multiband antenna with broadside
radiation patterns and with efficient directivity. This
geometry offers numerous variations in dimension and
design, hence gives wide scope for commercial applications.
REFERENCES
[1] Mandelbrot B.B., “The Fractal Geometry of Nature”, W. H. Freeman,
New York, 1983
[2] R Garg, P. Bhartia, I. Bahl, and A. Ittipiboon, Microstrip Antenna
Design Handbook, Artech House, Norwood, MA, 2001.
[3] K.J. Vinoy, Jose K. Abraham, and V.K. Varadan, Fractal Dimension
and Frequency Response of Fractal Shaped Antennas, 2003 IEEE
[4] Puente C., Romeu J., Pous R., Cardana A., “On the behavior of the
Sierpinski multiband antenna”, IEEE Trans. on Antennas and
Propagation, Vol. 46, pp. 517- 524, 1998
[5] Lee. Y., Yeo. J., Mittra R., Ganguly S. and Tenbarge J., “Fractal
and Multiband Communication Antennas”, IEEE Conf. on Wireless
Communication Technology, pp. 273-274, 2003.

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