Int. J. of Recent Trends in Engineering & Technology, Vol.

11, June 2014

ANALYSIS OF TRIANGULAR MICROSTRIP

PATCH ANTENNA WITH KOCH BOUNDARY
FOR WLAN APPLICATION
1

M.Arulaalan and 2L.Nithyanandan

1Pondicherry Engineering College, Pondicherry

Email: arulaalan@gmail.com
2
Pondicherry Engineering College, Pondicherry
Email: nithi@pec.edu

Abstract A triangular Microstrip patch antenna with and without Koch boundary for
Wireless local area networks (WLAN) is proposed. The inset fed feeding technique is chosen
because it provides good impedance matching. The performance of the inset fed triangular
Microstrip patch antenna is improved by the addition of Koch boundary. With the Koch
boundary of single iteration added to the antenna the resonant frequency of the antenna is
maintained with improved return loss and gain. Details of the proposed antenna with Koch
boundary are described and the experimental results are presented and analyzed with the
antenna without Koch boundary. There is a good agreement between the simulated and
measured results. Results show that the antenna gain and return loss is improved by the
addition of Koch boundary
Index Terms Microstrip patch antenna, inset fed, return Loss, WLAN, Koch.

I. INTRODUCTION
WLAN applications has become more popular especially those operating in ISM band. Printed
antennas shown to be promising for WLAN applications. They are easy to fabricate at low cost. Microstrip
antennas in general have the attractive features of low profile, light weight, easy fabrication. However,
Microstrip antennas inherently have a narrow bandwidth and low gain. The Koch fractal geometry was first
introduced by Von Koch [1]. The fractal geometry was applied to monopole, loops, patch, antenna arrays and
dipoles. If the return loss of the antenna is improved the gain of the antenna increases. Several research are
carried out for improving return loss and gain in a Microstrip antenna and most of the research targeted on
rectangular and square patch antenna. In this paper triangular Microstrip inset fed antenna is chosen and the
return loss is improved by adding additional structure, the Koch boundary. The triangular patch antenna is
chosen because it occupies less space compared to rectangular patch antenna. For the improvement of return
loss and gain several researchers modified the patch shape which resulted in complexity. For improving
return loss, application of fractal geometries has been shown to enhance gain and directivity [1]. Fractal slot
antennas are used to improve the gain and directivity [2]. However these techniques increased the antenna
size. Partial Koch boundaries with two iteration and air gap are introduced in a triangular patch antenna to
improve the return loss and gain [3]. The slotted triangular patch shows lower reflection loss compared to a
conventional triangular patch antenna [4] .This technique introduced a complex structure around the
triangular patch which is difficult to fabricate. The return loss and gain in this paper is improved with single
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iteration of Koch boundary thereby reducing the complex structure with higher iteration. In this paper design,
simulation and fabrication results of a simple Microstrip patch antenna based on first iteration of Koch shape
is presented. The design, simulated results and measured results are discussed in section II and III

II. ANTENNA GEOMETRY AND DESIGN

A. Equilateral Triangle Microstrip Antenna Design
The triangular patch antenna is a good replacement for rectangular patch antenna due to similar radiation
characteristcs and triangular patch antenna occupies smaller area on substrate than other existing shapes like
rectangular and circular.FR4 substrate is chosen to fabricate the antenna with the thickness of t=1.6mm and
dielectric constant value of r =4.4.The FR4 substrate is chosen because of low cost , zero water absorption
and good mechanical strength. For an equilateral triangular microstrip antenna the value of a as shown in
Fig. 1is obtained from the cavity model with perfect magnetic walls [5,6].

=60

Figure 1. Equilateral triangular Microstrip patch antenna

(1)
Where a=length of a side of the equilateral triangle in mm, C= velocity of electromagnetic waves in free
space light and r = Relative dielectric constant of the substrate (FR4).
The feed technique plays an important role in the design of Microstrip patch antenna. The inset fed
feeding technique is chosen because the input impedance of the antenna can be easily controlled by varying
the feed length to achieve 50 impedance.
For calculating the inset fed length (y0) the inset fed rectangular Microstrip antenna formula [7-9]
is chosen which is around Yo = 8mm and the inset fed width Wi =3mm as shown in Fig. 2.The dimensions of
the antenna are tabulated in Table I

Figure 2. Layout of the inset fed equilateral triangle Microstrip patch antenna.

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TABLE I. THE DIMENSIONS OF INSET FED TRIANGULAR PATCH ANTENNA

Patch antenna
Parameters

Yo

Wi

Units in mm

32.3

39.5

B. Measured Results of inset triangular patch antenna

The inset fed triangular microstrip patch antenna is designed, simulated using Advanced
Design System 2008 and fabricated using FR4 substrate. The antenna covers the frequency range of 2.4GHz
(IEEE 802.11b). Fig. 3 shows the fabricated Inset fed triangular patch Microstrip antenna .Figs. 4 shows the
simulated and measured return Loss of Inset fed Microstrip antenna without Koch boundary. Return loss is a
measure of impedance matching. The antenna measurement is carried out using Rohde & Schwarz ZVH4.
The parameters return loss and VSWR of the Microstrip antenna are measured using Vector network
analyzer.The simulated return loss is -19.44 dB and the fabricated antenna return loss is -16dB . The
simulated resonant frequency of the antenna is 2.37GHz and the fabricated antenna resonant frequency is
2.51GHz. The measured impedance of the antenna is 51.The measured VSWR value is 1.39 as shown in
Fig.7 and gain of the antenna is 5.6dB with directivity of 5dB as shown in Fig.6 and Fig.8 shows the 2-D
radiation pattern of the antenna. The measured and simulated results difference is due to SMA Connector, the
feed position error, measurement and fabrication error.

0
S11 (dB)

-5

Simulated
Fabricated

-10
-15
-20
1

1.5

2.5

Frequency (GHz)

Figure 4.The simulated and measured return loss of inset fed

triangular patch antenna
Figure 3. Fabricated Inset fed triangular Microstrip
patch antenna.

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Figure 5.Current Distribution in inset fed triangular patch antenna

Figure 6. Gain and Directivity of inset fed triangular

Patch antenna

Figure 7. Measured VSWR

Figure 8. 2-D pattern of Inset fed patch antenna

III. TRIANGULAR MICROSTRIP PATCH ANTENNA WITH KOCH BOUNDARY

The Koch fractal curve is one of the most well known fractal shapes. Fractal shaped antennas
exhibit some interesting characteristics, which correlate with their geometrical properties. The word fractal,
derived from the Latin word fractus meaning broken, i.e., fragmented, fractional or irregular. A fractal is a
rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be subdivided in parts, each of which is a reduced size copy of
the whole. Fractals are generally self similar and independent of scale. The main idea of using fractal
geometries in the design of microstrip antenna is to increase the effective electrical length through which
current travels. There are an infinite number of fractal geometries available, but a few can be applied to
microstrip antennas to observe their behavior particularly on the size reduction. Sierpinski carpet and
Sierpinski gasket antennas are familiar fractal geometries for their multiband operation [10]. The Koch curve
is one of the most familiar fractal curves which can be used to reduce the size of the antenna. Fractal
structures are generally composed of multiple copies of themselves at different scales and the size of a fractal
is determined by the initiator and iteration number. Koch fractal geometry is one of the well known fractal
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shapes. The first iteration of Koch fractal is obtained by replacing the sides of an equilateral triangle by a
Koch curve characteristics. Fig. 9 shows Koch curve for zero iteration. Fig. 10 shows Koch curve for one
iteration. Fig. 11 shows Koch curve for two iteration. With each iteration the length of Koch increases by one
third of its previous length. The Koch is constructed by adding smaller and smaller triangles to the structure
in an iterative fashion. In this paper to improve the antenna performance an inset fed triangular microstrip
antenna is chosen and return loss and gain is improved by adding Koch curve with single iteration on two
sides of the triangular patch antenna and the antenna structure is modified by introduction of Koch curve. It is
observed that the 1/4.5 Koch patch has much improved return loss and gain compared to that of the inset fed
Triangular patch

Figure 10. Koch curve with one iteration.

Figure 9. Koch curve with zero iteration.

Figure 11. Koch curve with two iteration.

The Koch curve with one iteration is applied to the two sides of the inset fed triangular patch
antenna. The sides of the equilateral triangle a=39.5mm.The sides of the triangle is divided by 4.5, the value
is around 8.5mm which is used to form the Koch curve for single iteration.
A. INSET FED MICROSTRIP PATCH ANTENNA MEASURED RESULTS WITH KOCH BOUNDARY
The performance of the inset fed antenna is improved by the addition of Koch boundary
to the antenna .The antenna parameters return loss and gain is improved by the addition of Koch boundary.
The inset fed triangular Microstrip antenna with Koch boundary is fabricated in a FR4 with thickness of
1.6mm.The antenna operates for WLAN application. Fig. 12 shows the fabricated inset fed triangular
Microstrip patch antenna with Koch boundary .Fig. 13 shows the simulated and measured return Loss of
Inset fed triangular Microstrip patch antenna with Koch boundary. The return loss improved by -10dB by the
addition of Koch boundary on the two sides of triangular patch antenna and the antenna resonated in WLAN
frequency band of 2.47GHz. The gain of the antenna improved to 6.4 dB as shown in Fig.14.The impedance
of the antenna is 51 .Fig.15 shows the current distribution in the antenna with Koch boundary. The VSWR
value at the resonating frequency is 1.27 as shown in Fig.16. Fig.17 shows the 2D radiation pattern of the
antenna.

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0
-5

Fabricated
Simulated

S11 (dB)

-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
1
Figure 12. Fabricated Inset fed Microstrip antenna
Microstrip with Koch boundary

Figure 14. Gain and Directivity in inset fed triangular

1.5

2
Frequency (GHz)

2.5

Figure13.Measured and simulated reflection coefficient of

antenna with Koch boundary

Figure 15.Current distribution in antenna with Koch boundary

patch antenna with Koch boundary

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Figure 16. VSWR Measurement with Koch boundary

Figure 17. E-Plane Radiation pattern of Inset fed

Microstrip antenna with Koch boundary.

TABLE II. PERFORMANCE METRICS OF INSET FED MICROSTRIP ANTENNA.

Antenna
Results

Without
Koch
Triangle
With
Koch
Triangle

Measured Results
Return Loss
(dB)

Frequency
(GHz)

VSWR

Gain

-16

2.51

1.39

5.6dB

-26

2.47

1.27

6.4dB

Table II clearly indicates that when the Koch boundary with single iteration is added to the inset
fed triangular Microstrip patch antenna the return loss and gain increases .The impedance and radiation
pattern of the inset fed Microstrip patch remain unchanged.
III. CONCLUSION
The equilateral triangle inset fed Microstrip patch antenna with Koch fractal boundary is proposed
and implemented in FR4 substrate. The resonant frequency of the antenna shifted from 2.51GHz to 2.47GHz,
the gain of the antenna increased by 0.8dB and the return loss improved by -10dB by the addition of Koch
boundary. The measured results of the antenna agree with the simulated results. The measured results show
high gain and improved return loss. Thus, by the addition of Koch the antenna performance is improved. The
antenna presented can be used for WLAN applications.
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