Combined Fractal Dipole Wire Antenna
Mustafa Khalid .T
Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department
University of Technology
Baghdad íIraq
Email: m_kt80@yahoo.com
Abstract í In today’s world of expanding wireless
communications, there is increasing need for more compact,
multiband, and moderate gain antennas for portable
communications systems to respond to the great demand for both
military and commercial communications systems. Fractal
antenna designs can assist in meeting these design requirements.
This paper introduces a novel small size and multiband fractal
dipole antenna called combined fractal antenna for 2D and 3D
configurations where two different fractal geometries combined
together to get the main antenna body. This antenna combines
aspects of Hilbert and Koch curves and expected that the resulted
antenna have a hybrid or combined properties related to the
geometries that constructed this combined geometry. Lísystem
generator was advantageously used to create desired geometry
with possibility of adjusting its properties. Numerical analyses of
this combined antenna were done using method of moments
technique where the impedance and radiation behavior of
proposed antenna are numerically studied with NEC-Win
professional software.
Keywords Fractals, Fractal antennas, combined fractal
antennas, multiband antennas
I. INTODUCTION
As part of an effort to further improve modern
communication system technology, researchers are now
studying many different approaches for creating new and
innovative antennas. One technique that has received much
recent attention involves combining aspects of the modern
theory of fractal geometry with antenna design [1].
Fractals were first defined by Mandelbrot [2] as a way of
classifying complex geometric structures that have non-integer
dimensionality and which posses' inherent self-similarity or
self- affinity with-in their geometrical structure. While
Euclidean geometries are limited to points, lines, sheets and
volumes of integer dimensionality, fractal structures fall
between these Euclidean classifications having non-integer
dimensionality. Fractal geometries accurately characterize
many non-Euclidean features of the natural including the
length of coastline, density of clouds, and the branching of
trees [3] and find application in many areas of science and
engineering including antenna design. Nowadays, the design
of multiband and small size antennas is still of major
importance as an engineer topic. The growths of the
telecommunication systems are driving the engineering efforts
to develop multiservice (multiband) and compact (portable)
systems which require such kind of antennas. In case of
cellular systems, not only the handset antenna is important, but
also those on base stations. It is in this framework where
fractal technology appears potentially as powerful tool to meet
the telecommunication operator requirements [4].
The strong relationship between the behavior of an antenna
and its size relative to the wavelength has for decades imposed
a tight constraint on the antenna designer. Conventional non-
fractal antenna usually designed to operate at relatively narrow
range of frequencies, typical on the order of 10í40% around a
center wavelength. Furthermore, there are minimum size
limitations on conventional antennas as electrically small
antennas are generally rather poor radiators. Fractal shaped
antennas are becoming a useful way to design advanced
antennas such as multiband antennas with approximately the
same input or radiation characteristics for different frequency
bands. This comes out from the fact that most of the fractals
are self-similar objects. That is roughly speaking fractals
composed many copies of themselves at different scales. The
global fractal form is repeated at different sizes as many times
as desired within the object structure such that the global
object and its parts become identical [4].
Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Iteration 4
Figure 1. Construction of Hilbert geometry
In addition to the simplicity and self-similarity, fractal
curves have the additional property of approximately filling a
plane which makes them the attractive candidates for use in
the design of antennas [5]. An example of “plane filling”
Hilbert curve is demonstrated in Figure 1 [6]. The plane
filling property leads to curves that electrically very long but
fit in a compact physical area. The plane-filling fractal type
antennas exhibited two significant benefits over the
conventional antenna. The first benefit is that the increased
electrical length leads to a lower resonant frequency, which
effectively miniaturizes the antenna. The second benefit is that
the increased electrical length can raise the input resistance of
the antenna when it is used in a frequency range as a small
antenna [7]. In [8] the properties of Hilbert geometry
(simplicity, self similarity and space filling) are exploited in
realizing a ‘‘small’’ resonant antenna with a performance
comparable to a Ȝ/2 dipole in an antenna smaller than Ȝ /10.
The Koch fractal curve shown in figure 2 is another plane
filling example. This fractal designed to understand the
behavior of the resonant frequency of fractal antennas as a
function of the antenna geometry and wire length [9]. It was
shown that the electrical performance of Koch fractal
monopoles is superior to that of conventional straight wire
monopoles especially when operated in the small antenna
frequency mode [10].
Iteration 0 Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3
Figure 2. Monopole Koch curve
This paper shows Hilbert and Koch fractal curves can be
combined and antennas constructed from such combined
fractal curves have improved electrical properties. First,
combined fractal curves have an improved space filling, a
feature that translates into reduced antenna physical size.
Second, combined fractal antennas have an increased number
of resonance frequency bands, a valuable feature that can be
taken advantage of in multi-functional and multi-standard
wireless equipment.
II. COMBINED GEOMETRY DESCRIPTION
The proposed model consists of combination of two
different fractal geometries, Koch curve and Hilbert curve.
Figure 3 shows how to combine second iteration Hilbert curve
with different iterations of Koch curve. Iteration0 in figure 3 is
the basic Hilbert element iterated twice. The different iteration
of Koch curve replaced with the segment lines of the Hilbert
curve geometry. It’s obvious that this approach will increase
the overall curve-length of the resulted geometry. This
combined geometry will be considered as the main antenna
body. This combined geometry was created by using
Lísystem which is a common algorithm used in the
construction of fractal geometries.
III. MATHEMATICAL MODELING
The numerical simulations of the antenna system are
carried out via the method of moments. Numerical modeling
commercial software (NEC) [11] is used in all simulations.
The NEC is a computer code based on the method of moment
for analyzing the electromagnetic response of an arbitrary
structures consisting of wires or surfaces, such as Hilbert and
Koch curves .The modeling process is simply done by
dividing all straight wires into short segments where the
current in one segment is considered constant along the length
of the short segment. It is important to make each wire
segment as short as possible without violation of maximum
segment length to radius ratio computational restrictions.
. By using NEC to modeling a wire structures the segments
should follows the paths of conductor as closely as possible
[12].
Iteration 0 Iteration 1
Iteration 2 Iteration 3
Figure 3. Construction of the combined geometry (Different Iterations of
Koch curve combined with second iteration Hilbert curve)
IV. ANTENNA SIMULATION RESULTS
In this wok, method of moment simulation code (NEC)
used to perform a detailed study of VSWR, Input impedance
and radiation pattern characteristics of the combined antenna
in a free space. The combined fractal wire dipole antenna
consists of second iteration Hilbert curve and first iteration
Koch curve and around a design frequency 500 MHz. Two
variations of this structure are considered in this work. One is
a planer structure with all wire segments contained in a single
plane (xy-plane) which is referred to as a 2D configuration. In
the second version of the structure, the last Koch curve
iteration is extended into the vertical plane making a 3D
configuration. A typical combined dipole fractal antenna has
shown in figure 4 . The antenna which under consideration
here designed with out any dielectric substrate, however, in
some practical applications its required dielectric support. The
antenna wire is assumed perfectly conducting and, thus, no
ohmic loss is considered here. Figure 5 shows the
visualization of this geometry by using NEC-viewer software.
In all cases, the simulated fractal antenna is contained within a
7cm x 7cm square .This makes the basic Hilbert straight line
element evident in Figure 4 L = 0.77cm long. The feed
source point is placed at the point of symmetry for this
combined geometry, where in the analysis of this geometry a
voltage source of 1V used at this fed point. Real part
Imag. part

(a) Input impedance of the 2D combined antenna

Real part
Figure 4. Typical Combined fractal dipole wire antenna Imag. part

(b) Input impedance of the 2D combined antenna

Figure 6. Input impedances for the combined geometry

(a) 2D combined geometry TABLE I. RESONANT FREQUENCIES AND IMPEDANCES FOR 2D

COMBINED ANTENNA
Resonance Frequency
Frequencies Input Impedance (Ÿ) Spacing
(MHz) (MHz)
n R jX fn+1 - fn
f1 =500 2.92 -1.05 -
f2 = 1400 47 -1.07 900
f3 = 1585 218 -0.1 185
f4 = 2200 72.6 -9.4 615
f5 = 2960 71.1 -12 760

TABLE II. RESONANT FREQUENCIES AND IMPEDANCES FOR 3D

(b) 3D combined Geometry COMBINED ANTENNA
Resonance Frequency
Figure 5. Visualization of the combined geometry Frequencies Input Impedance (Ÿ) Spacing
(MHz) (MHz)
The real and imaginary parts of the input impedance of this n R jX fn+1 - fn
combined geometry are shown in figure 6 over a frequency
range from 100MHz – 3GHz. The input impedances f1 =475 2.59 -1.8 -
characteristics of this combined geometry show the multiple f2 = 1355 46.3 2.48 880
resonance characteristics of the antenna as. The simulation of f3 = 1535 213 3.5 180
the 2D and 3D combined geometry shows that the combined f4 = 2150 73.3 -2.81 615
antenna have a resonant frequencies at (500, 1400, 2200 and f5 = 2960 74.6 -11.7 810
2960 MHz) and at (475, 1355, 1535, 2150 MHz) for 2D and
3D geometry respectively as shown in figure 6.
 XY- plane XY- plane

XZ - plane XY- plane

YZ - plane XY- plane

f = 500 MHz f = 1400 MHz f = 475 MHz f = 1355 MHz

XY- plane
XY- plane

XY- plane
XY- plane

XY- plane XY- plane

f = 22\00 MHz f = 2960 MHz f = 2150 MHz f = 2960 MHz

Figure 7. Normalized field pattern for 2D combined antenna Figure 8. Normalized field pattern for 3D combined antenna
Table I and Table II shows the resonant frequencies of this
two combined geometries, the corresponding input
impedances at each resonant frequency, and the spacing
between each adjacent resonance frequencies.
(a) VSWR of the 2D combined antenna
(b) VSWR of the 3D combined antenna
Figure 9. Antenna VSWR with respect to 50 Ÿ
The plots of normalized field pattern in the three
orthogonal planes (XY, XZ, and YZ-plane) at each resonant
frequency of this combined geometry are shown in figure 7
and 8 where the combined geometry placed in the XY-plane.
The simulated VSWR characteristics for both geometries are
shown in figure 9.
V. Conclusions
In this paper, 2D and 3D combined fractal dipole antenna
is studied. The simulation results show the following:
x The simulation of fractal antennas with Koch curve or
Hilbert curve alone shows that these antennas have
their first resonance frequency below the design
frequency [7-8-13]. But with this combined geometry
the first resonant frequency was exactly the same
design frequency in the case of 2D geometry, and the
difference was 5% in the case of 3D geometry.
x In the design of fractal antennas, the number of
resonance frequencies was about equal to the iteration
order of the geometry. But this proposed antenna has
approximately four resonant frequencies by combining
only first order with second order geometry.
x The proposed antenna have four resonant frequencies,
the first one have a low input impedance where the low
values for the real part of the input impedance are
consistent with other similar small antennas such as
Koch antennas and small meander line antennas[8].
x Form the simulation results; it’s observed that the
upper two resonant frequencies have approximately the
same input characteristics where the input impedance
around 75 Ÿ at these two frequencies. This shows that
the self similarity property of fractal translated to its
electromagnetic behavior.
x There is a degree of similarity between the radiation
characteristics at different resonance frequencies and
this means this geometry may have a similar behavior
at different resonance frequencies.
x The size reduction of the combined fractal antennas is
quite obvious; a resonant 500 MHz antenna fits in a
7cm by 7 cm area whereas a standard Ȝ/2 dipole length
would be 30 cm.
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