12th International Congress on Artificial Materials for Novel Wave Phenomena – Metamaterials 2018

Espoo, Finland, Aug. 27th – Sept. 1st, 2018

Optimized Metamaterial Loaded Square Fractal Antenna for

Gain and Bandwidth Enhancement
Suganthi S
ECE Department, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore, India, drssuga@gmail.com

Abstract – This paper presents a report on the enhanced performance of an optimized

metamaterial loaded square fractal antenna (OMSFA). The design and simulation of the
antenna was carried out using Electronic Desk Top HFSS version 18.2 software. The antenna
layer spreads over an area of 23 square millimeter on a FR4 substrate whose dielectric
permittivity is 4.4. The substrate size measures an area of 46 mm X 28 mm, with 1.6 mm
thickness. Also the design includes a microstrip feed and truncated ground. The antenna
resonates well with a deep return loss of -38.9 dB in a broad bandwidth of 3.2 GHz (128 %)
between 2 GHz and 5.2 GHz. The OMSFA produces enhanced gain of 9.8 dB at 2.5 GHz. The
radiation is more focused due to the effect of metamaterial loading. The proposed antenna is
recommended for wireless application in the lower region (S band) of the microwave spectrum.

I. INTRODUCTION

The miniaturization of wireless handheld devices including microstrip antenna[MSA] remains an active
research area in view of several day-to-day advancements happening in wireless technologies. As introduced by
Mandelbrot (1983) the fractal a concept is being used in antenna technology for miniaturization. The inclusion of
fractal concept through space-filling and self-similarity properties [1-4] in the MSA design yields miniaturization
of antenna size and also broad bandwidth or multiple resonances. Moreover, the negative medium property
introduced by Veselago (1968) by using metamaterials (MTM) [5], has been popularly adopted by various
researchers for the better performance of the miniaturized microstrip antenna. It has been demonstrated by a
variety of designs [6-8] that the metamaterial loading enhances the gain and focusing the directional radiation of
the antenna. Compared to CPW feed [14], microstrip feed with fractal and MTM loaded MSAs yields better
performance. Additionally, truncated, defected ground structures [DGS] and electromagnetic bandgap (EBG)
arrangements [9-10] are also gaining attentions in the performance enhancement of MSAs. This paper proposes a
compact Optimized Metamaterial loaded Square Fractal Antenna [OMSFA] design by amalgamating fractal,
MTM as well as truncated ground plane (TGP) [4] concepts together in the antenna design. The following
sections explain the design, simulation and the discussions on the performance of the OMSFA.

II. ANTENNA DESIGN

A. Square Fractal Antenna (SFA)

Firstly, the dimensions of the conventional square MSA can be determined from the design formulae
adopted in the literature [3]. There are several techniques proposed by the fractal antenna researchers for the
extraction of fractal structures / iterations [4] from the conventional MSA. This paper proposes an algorithm
from which the new iterations of SFA can be obtained from square MSA. Each iterated structure is treated as
the building block for the next iteration while maintaining the spread area of the antenna unaltered. The fourth
iterated structure is used in this design with microstrip feed and a truncated ground. The spread area of SFA is 23
mm X 23 mm with square shaped (each small square measuring 5 mm) fractal edged contour. A microstrip feed
of length 25 mm and width of 2.75 mm is used. The substrate is FR4 material with εr = 4.4 and thickness h = 1.6
mm spreading over an area of 46 mm X 28 mm. Initially, the ground plane is truncated to a size of 20 mm X 28
mm after optimization.

B. Parametric Study and Slip Ring Resonator (SRR) type of MTM

The parametric study is made for determining the optimum (i). feed mechanism(between CPW and microstrip
feeds) (ii). ground length Lg (among 46 mm, 20 mm and 15 mm) and (iii).feed width wf (among 2.75 mm, 3 mm

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 12th International Congress on Artificial Materials for Novel Wave Phenomena – Metamaterials 2018
Espoo, Finland, Aug. 27th – Sept. 1st, 2018

and 3.25 mm) to yield better performance. The MTM ring assumes a width w, spacing between rings s and the
gap g as 0.5 mm. The side length l of the outer ring is 5 mm. The method described in [6, 8] is adopted for the
design of SRR structure. Copper is used as the conducting material for the antenna, ground and MTM structures.
All these studies are carried out in a sweep frequency range of 1 -12 GHz with 200 sample points using HFSS
version 18.2 simulation software. The Return Loss (RL), Bandwidth (BW), VSWR, Radiation Pattern & Gain(G)
characteristics are analyzed.

(a) (b) (c) (d)

Fig.1 Various Stages of Conventional Square MSA (a). 0th, 1st, 2nd 3rd and 4th Iterations
(b). SFA with Microstrip Feed (c). Four Ring SRR (d). MTM Loaded SFA
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Firstly, the comparison of feed effects with CPW and microstrip is performed. It is found that the RL level for
microstrip feed is -24.67 dB at 2.38 GHz resonance with a large BW of 3.2 GHz at -10 dB point of RL, whereas
the performance of CPW feed method is not much appreciable. Secondly, the effect of variation in Lg is verified
and found that the resonance of SFA remains unaltered for Lg of 20 mm compared to the Lg = 46 mm and 15 mm.
Thirdly, the effect of change in feed width is analyzed and found that its resonance remains unchanged when wf =
2.75 mm with deep RL value. Finally the optimized SFA with microstrip feed, truncated ground (Lg = 20 mm)
and a feed width of 2.75 mm from the parametric study.

Fig.2 RL -change in number of rings in MSFA Fig.3 RL comparison SFA and OMSFA

Fig.4 Gain - Change in Number of Rings in OMSFA Fig.5 Comparison of Gain in SFA & OMSFA
The effect of MTM loaded SFA (MSFA) with change in number of rings of the SRR structure is taken for
comparison and found that result depicted in Fig.2 presents the enhanced RL value of -38.9 dB at 2.5 GHz in a
broad BW of 3.2 GHz between 2 GHz and 5.2 GHz. The RL level of SFA and OMSFA is presented in Fig.3.
Two deep RL points are noticed in the BW region for OMSFA. The effect of gain G due to change in the number

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 12th International Congress on Artificial Materials for Novel Wave Phenomena – Metamaterials 2018
Espoo, Finland, Aug. 27th – Sept. 1st, 2018

of rings in SRR is analyzed in Fig.4. In Fig.5 the red solid graph shows an enhanced gain of 9.5 dB at 2.5 GHz in
the BW of interest corresponding to the four ring MSFA compared to a gain of 4.85 dB in SFA. In Fig.6 and
Fig.7, the 3D radiation plot, Co-Pol and X-Pol patterns are appreciable with high gain. Hence the four ring MTM
loaded SFA is proposed as the optimized MSFA(OMSFA).

Fig.6 3D Radiation Pattern of OMSFA Fig.7 Comparison Co-Pol and X-Pol in OMSFA
The performance of the proposed antenna is compared with [2] and the Table I provides the details of comparison.
Table I Performance Comparison
Reference Material , size (mm) & feed fr (GHz) RL(dB) Impedance BW(GHz) % BW Gain(dB) at fr
[2] Substrate: FR4, 70 x 70 x 1.6 3.41 -20 dB 2.35 (3.22 - 5.57) 69 2.3
Antenna: 22 x 22, microstrip
Proposed Substrate: FR4, 70 x 70 x 1.6 2.5 -38.9 3.2 (2- 5.2) 126 9.5
Antenna: 23 x 23, microstrip

VI. CONCLUSION
From the study of performance of OMSFA, it is clearly noticed that the proposed antenna provides enhanced
gain of 9.8 dB with a broad BW of 3.2 GHz and a deep RL value of -38.9 dB at 2.5 GHz compared to the SFA
without SRR loading. This proposed antenna is recommended for wireless and energy harvesting applications in
S band (2-4 GHz).
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author deeply acknowledges the RF & Microwave Research laboratory facility funded through Major
Research Project of CHRIST(deemed to be University, Bangalore, India) for carrying out this work.

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