Design of Cherry Blossom Flower - Shaped fractal

Antenna for Wearable Application

R.Jothi Chitra1, M.Sivarathinabala2, Gowtham. N3 , Naveen Kumar R. K4,
Selva Gandhi P5

1,2,3,4,5
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
1,2,3,4,5
Velammal Institute of Technology, Chennai, India
rjc@velammalitech.edu.in1, msrb@velammalitech.edu.in2,
gowtham.n1212@gmail.com3,rknaveenkumar2206@gmail.com4,
selvagandhi200105@gmail.com5

Abstract. A compact Cherry Blossom Flower-shaped fractal antenna has

been designed for Wearable application. The antenna is 52 𝑚𝑚 × 54 𝑚𝑚 ×
1.9 𝑚𝑚 in size. It comprises of two iterative eight petal shaped radiator and
simulated on Polyethylene substrate with a thickness of 1.9 mm and a
dielectric constant of ℇr = 2.25 is used. The petal shaped fractal has been
incorporated into the patch to improve the radiation properties of the
designed antenna. The 50Ω microstrip feed line powers the flower shaped
fractal antenna and simulated using Ansoft HFSS simulation software. The
presented antenna is operated at 2.45 GHz with a return loss value of
-12.45dB and VSWR of 1.51. A peak gain of 6.6 dBi is achieved at second
iteration at 2.45GHz. Radiation properties such as return loss, gain, VSWR
and radiation pattern are simulated and demonstrated.
Keywords: Cherrry Blossom flower shaped, Wearable, fractal, antenna

1 Introduction

Wearable antennas have been attracting the interest of researchers and scientists in
recent years. Over the previous few decades, remarkable progress has been made in
the development of wearable devices and sensors that are capable of monitoring and
transmitting vital signals for body-worn applications, including health monitoring,
military and recuse application etc [1]. The use of Microstrip antennas has
significantly increased in the field of antenna design industry. The microstrip
antenna offers number of advantages including its small size, light weight,
affordable manufacture, seamless integration with MIMCs and flexibility in terms
of shapes including square, rectangle, pentagon and hexagon etc [2]. Further in [3],
a compact wearable fractal antenna, designed with meandering slits in koch fractal
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pattern and a defected structure, which effectively reduces its size and improves its
bandwidth. operates in the 2.45GHz ISM band. In [4], a logo shaped textile antenna
fed with coplanar waveguide (CPW) has been developed for wearable application
in the frequency range of 2.45GHz band applications. Further in [5], for dual-band
wearable applications, on a three layered model, an Aperture coupled Fractal
Antenna with dual-band frequency of 2.4 GHz for on-body IoT and 5.8 GHz for
off-body IoT has been created. In [6], Artificial Neural Network (ANN) with
Wearable Hybrid Fractal Antenna, Defected Ground Structure and Iterative
Function System is constructed and analyzed for ISM, satellite communication,
RFID and Bluetooth applications. In [7], a Koch fractal dipole antenna using cotton
as a flexible substrate for wearable application at 450MHz is designed. The Specific
Absorption Rate of this model is below the safety level of 0.119 W/kg is addressed.
An antenna with a wideband snowflake fractal pattern for millimeter wave
communication at 28GHz was discussed [8], and supports dual beam
characteristics. Wearable antennas are integral components of wearable networks
since they receive and transmit signals between implantable devices and wearable
networks are addressed in [9]. In [10] literature provided a wideband, low-profile,
and flexible antenna for wearable biomedical telemetry applications by inserting
rectangular holes into a regular rectangular patch antenna. Furthermore, in [11], a
hybrid Sierpinski- Minkowski wearable fractal textile antenna using denim material
for ISM band and various wireless application is reported. This antenna is tested at
thigh and wrist position and which provided high impedance bandwidth and high
gain.
In [12] , the author reported a dual band tree shaped fractal flexible monopole
antenna for wearable purpose. To achieve dual impedance bandwidth a
semi-flexible substance Rogers RT5870 is printed and the antenna performance is
measured under various bending scenarios. Further in [13], for wireless
applications, a low profile, dual band single and four element Minkowski–
Sierpinski fractal antenna with high gain is designed. The size of this reported
antenna is high. In [14] the author designed and investigated a eight petal shaped
-flower fractal antenna for terahertz wideband purpose with a partial ground and
bandwidth of 0.50-6.60 THz. In [15] describes a flower-shaped fractal antenna with
coplanar quarter elliptical ground planes and an asymmetrical stub-loaded feeding
line for Ultra wideband applications. The aforementioned research discusses the
design of different types of fractal and wearable antenna and its radiation
performance. In this letter, a new wearable eight petal Cherry Blossom Flower
shaped fractal antenna is designed and presented. This proposed antenna is
designed to radiate at 2.45GHz ISM band which can be used for wearable
application. The sections are structured as follows: Section 2 explores the design
process of Cherry Blossom flower-shaped fractal antenna, while Section 3 presents
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simulated findings and discussions. Section 4 provides a summary of the

conclusion, while section 5 depicts the future work.

2. Antenna Design

The design process of Eight Petal Cherry Blossom Flower-shaped

microstrip patch fractal antenna for wearable application is investigated in this
section. The Cherry Blossom flower- shaped patch is generated on a Polyethylene
substrate which has a thickness of 1.9mm with dielectric constant of ℇr = 2.25. and
52 x 54 mm size. The proposed flower shaped antenna geometry front and back
views is shown in Figures 1 and 2 respectively. The Flower shaped fractal geometry
makes the antenna more compact size making them suitable for applications where
space is limited, such as in wearable technology. Initially a single petal
configuration is generated as shown Fig 3(a). Consequently, a four-petal flower
shaped and eight petal flower shaped fractal is constructed as first and second
iteration shown in Fig 3(b) and 3(c). In first iteration the four petals are created at
45° angle with respect to each petal. Furher in the second iteration, the eight petals
are placed at an angle of 22.5° with respect to each other to form a cherry blossom
fower shped fractal antenna. The eight petals are generated with same size and
placed symmetrically to form a Cherry blossom shaped flower fractal antenna.
Fractals are the main radiating element and fractal geometries can improve
impedance matching, low reflection loss and better radiation efficiency.

Ws

Wg & Ws

4 5

3 6
Lg & Ls
Ls
2 7

1 8

Fig 1: Front view of the proposed antenna. Fig 2 : Back view of proposed antenna.
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The radiating element is made up of copper and it is excited by microstrip fed line
of 50Ω. The characteristics of the antenna are influenced by features such as the
substrate material, antenna size and feed position. When the number of iterations is
increased, the number of sides in the antenna also increases. However, despite the
increase in the number of sides, the size of the antenna remains unchanged.

W 2 3

L
1 4

Fig.3 a . Zeroth Iteration Fig.3 b . First Iteration

3 4

2 5

1 6

8 7

Fig .3 c . Second Iteration.

The dimensions of the antennas are calculated using transmission line method [2].
The suggested antenna’s radiation performance is dependent on its dimensions such
as the width and length of the substarte and ground plane.Table 1 depicts the
designed antenna optimized dimensions.
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Table 1 Geometrical Dimension of proposed cherry blossom flower shaped fractal

antenna.
Parameters Specifications Dimensions in mm
Ls Substrate Length 52 mm
Ws Substrate Width 54 mm
Lf Feed Length 18mm
Wf Feed width 0.5mm
Lg Ground plane length 52 mm
Wg Ground plane width 54 mm
Hs Substarte height 1.9 mm

3. Results and Discussions

This section presents the simulated results of the Cherry Blossom flower shaped
fractal antenna using Ansoft HFSS software . The VSWR(Voltage Standing Wave
ratio), return loss, gain and radiation pattern of presented antenna is discussed and
reported in the section. Figure 4 depicts the simulated VSWR value of zeroth, first
and second iteration of the designed antenna. From the simulated results,
observations reveals that for 2.45GHz the value of VSWR is 2.1 for the zeroth
iteration at 3.69GHz the VSWR value is 17.65, since the VSWR value is very high,
number of petals are increased. For the first iteration at 2.14GHz the value is 1.8
and for third iteration at 2.45GHz, the value is 1.51. For the third iteration only, its
satisfies Wearable application operating frequency 2.45GHz.

Fig .4: VSWR for all three iterations.

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Fig.5 shows the simulated Return Loss value of zeroth, first and second iteration of
the presented antenna. From the simulated results, the observations reveals that for
3.69GHz the value of Return Loss is -.019 dB for the zeroth iteration, -14.45 dB for
first iteration at 2.14GHz and at 2.45GHz the value is -12.45 dB for second iteration.
It is inferred from the graph that as the level of iteration increases, the impedance
matching is perfect at resonant frequency 2 .45GHz. For the second iteration, the
VSWR and return loss value is improved to 1.51 and -12.45 dB respectively at
2.45GHz. From the second iteration it is inferred that, since the presented antenna
is radiating at 2.45 GHz ISM band, it is well suited for wearable application.

Fig.5: Return loss for all three iterations.

The value of VSWR and Return loss are depicted in table 2 and 3 for various
iteration levels. As per the table it is inferred that, as the number of iteration
increases, the radiation characteristics of antenna is also increased. The optimum
value of VSWR should be between 1 to 2 and return loss value should be below
than -10dB. For the second iteration, the presented antenna satisfies the ideal value
of VSWR 1.51 at 2.45GHz and return loss at the resonant frequency 2.45GHz ISM
band is -12.45 dB. Since the return loss is more negative at resonant frequency,
reflection is less and radiation efficiency is high. It is well applicable for wearable
application

Table 2 VSWR value for different stages of Iteration.

Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3
Frequency 3.69 2.14 2.45
(GHz)
VSWR 17.65 1.8 1.51
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Table 3 Return Loss value for different stages of Iterations.

Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3

(dB) (dB) (dB)
Frequency 3.69 2.14 2.45
(GHz)
Return -1.019 -14.45 -12.45
Loss

Figure 6 and 7 illustrates the E-Field and H-Field radiation pattern are simulated in
2D and 3D of proposed cherry blossom flower shaped fractal wearable antenna for
zeroth iteration at 3.65GHz, first iteration at 2.14GHz and third iteration at
2.45GHz. From the graph it is inferred, for all the iteration, the backward radiation
is less and the antenna radiates in the forward direction. The ground plane protects
the backward radiation and it can be used on human body. Fig.8 shows the gain plot
of presented antenna in 3D and the maximum gain is 6.6dBi. From the figure, it is
observed that, maximum energy is radiated along forward direction and gain value
is also high, so it is well suited for wearable application.

(a) Zeroth Iteration 𝑓 = 3.69𝐺𝐻𝑧 (b) First Iteration 𝑓 = 2.14𝐺𝐻𝑧

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(c) Third Iteration 𝑓 = 2.45𝐺𝐻𝑧

Fig 6: 2D Radiation Pattern of cherry blossom flower shaped fractal wearable antenna.

(a) Zeroth Iteration 𝑓 = 3.69𝐺𝐻𝑧 (b) First Iteration 𝑓 =

2.14𝐺𝐻𝑧
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(c) Third Iteration 𝑓 = 2.45𝐺𝐻𝑧

Fig 7. 3D Radiation Pattern of cherry blossom flower shaped fractal wearable antenna.

(a) Zeroth Iteration 𝑓 = 3.69𝐺𝐻𝑧 (b) First Iteration 𝑓 = 2.14𝐺𝐻𝑧

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(c) Third Iteration 𝑓 = 2.45𝐺𝐻𝑧

Fig.8: 3D Gain plot of proposed wearable antenna for all iterations.

Figure 9 shows the E(electric) and H(magnetic) field distribution for third iteration
at 2.45GHz. It is inferred from the figure the E field distribution is maximum is
around the petals and H field distribution is maximum is in the centre of the flower
shaped patch.

(i) E-field at 2.45 GHz (ii) H-field at 2.45 GH

Fig 9: E-Field and H- Field distribution of proposed antenna.

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Table 4 shows the performance characteristics of Cherry blossom flower shaped

fractal wearable antenna at 2. 45GHz.From the table it proved that the presented
antenna is well suited for wearable application.

Table 4 Performance Charcteristic of Cherry blossom flower shaped fractal wearable

antenna.
Description Frequency Return Losss VSWR Gain
(GHz) (dB) (dBi)
Iteration 2 2.45GHz -12.45 1.51 6.6

4 Conclusion

A modified Cherry Blossom Flower shaped fractal antenna is developed for

wearable application at 2.45GHz ISM band. The proposed antenna consists of
flower shaped patch and simulated with polyethylene substrate. The simulated
results of VSWR and return loss for the meet the optimum value at resonant
frequency. From the simulated results,observations reveals that the retrun loss is
-12.45dB and VSWR is 1.51 at 2.45 GHz. The maximum achievable gain at 2.45
GHz is 6.6 dBi. The radiation pattern is nearly stable within the frequency range.The
maximum achievable gain is 6.6 dBi. The proposed antenna is well suitable for
biomedical and wearable application.

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