MINIATURE MICROSTRIP FRACTAL PATCH ANTENNA WORKING WITH

CROSSED-DIAGONAL MODE
Pavel Hazdra(1), Milos Mazanek(1)
(1)
CTU Prague, FEE, Dept. of Electromagnetic Field, Technicka 2, 166 27, Prague, Czech Republic,
E-mail: hazdrap@fel.cvut.cz

ABSTRACT FCDM patch

Paper describes a novel type of miniature microstrip
patch antenna based on fractal geometry. Miniature Lh
properties are achieved by the presence of unusual air
Lv H
fundamental resonant mode which we call “crossed-
diagonal” (CD) current. ground

1. INTRODUCTION 31.3 mm

The proposed antenna is with advantage created by

using so-called L-System [1].
That is is a scheme primarily developed in the area of
computer science for simulating the development of
biological structures. In computer science terms, an L-

31.3 mm
system is a context-free, recursive, text substitution
scheme, followed by geometric interpretation. A simple
L-system starts with a seed S, say the letter F, and has
one or more rules R1-Rn to replace the existing seed.
This rule is then applied many times to produce a series
of strings of increasing complexity. To produce fractals,
strings generated by L-Systems must contain the FCDM patch
necessary information about figure geometry. A graphic L-probe

interpretation of strings is based on assigning the

language to the motion of an imaginary turtle. This
interpretation is used to produce fractal images.
L-system uses specific “language” or alphabet for
describing the turtle’s motion. Meaning of few ground plane
characters follows: coaxial
connector

F move forward a step of length LF

G move forward a step of length LG
+ turn left by a specified angle α Figure 1. FCDM antenna layout (side, top and whole
− turn right by a specified angle α view)

Antenna’s structure is generated from rectangle with
outer dimensions 31.3 x 31.3mm (which serves as
initiator or seed) and the following recipe was used:
F -> FGG+FG-G-FG+FGG, G->G,
α=90°, LF=0.9, LG=0.1.
Let’s call the structure FCDM (Fractal Crossed
Diagonal Mode) antenna for simplicity. Layout of the
antenna is shown at Fig. 1, so-called L-probe was used
for feeding. Air was used as a dielectric for simplicity.
Miniature properties are achieved by the presence of
unusual fundamental resonant mode which we call
“crossed-diagonal” (CD) modal current.
Behaviour of the antenna was studied using both cavity
model and full-wave analysis.
2. MODAL ANALYSIS
To study the modal properties of the antenna, we first
employed the cavity model and analyzed first few
modes. The cavity model is well known technique
applicable to patch antennas under some assumptions
[3]. Antenna is treated as planar resonator lying in XY
plane; Neumann boundary condition for the electric
field is applied and Helmholtz equation for Ez
component is solved (using FEM in our case):

_____________________________________________________
Proc. ‘EuCAP 2006’, Nice, France
6–10 November 2006 (ESA SP-626, October 2006)
 ∂E z
ΔE z + k 2 E z = 0 , =0 (1) 0

∂n
-5
Magnetic field is then obtained:
1 -10
H= z 0 × ∇E z (2)
jωμ 0 -15

|S11| [dB]
Finally, surface electric currents are proportional to
magnetic current (in other words, to gradient of electric -20

field):
G -25

J ∝ ∇E z (3)
-30

First three modes are shown at Fig. 2, together with -35

schematic sketch of the surface current density 1.7 1.72 1.74 1.76 1.78 1.8
f [GHz]
1.82 1.84 1.86 1.88 1.9

direction.
Figure 3. S11 (Return Loss) calculated by IE3D

The FCDM patch is considerable small, its dimensions

in terms of wavelengths are 0.187 x 0.187 x 0.09 λ only.
Compared to classical rectangular patch of the same
outer dimensions, the frequency (or size in other words)
reduction is around 60%.

This observation can be addressed to two main facts:

1) Existence of the crossed – diagonal mode (CDM)

2) Slotted structure causes electric current to further
prolong the CDM path
mode #1 mode #2 mode #3
Figure 2. First three modes (surface current density) Surface current distribution is shown at Fig. 4. with two
diagonal paths clearly visible. Thus, it’s to be expected,
Resonant frequencies estimated by the cavity model are that the excited electric field will have Ey component
for these modes: 1.998GHz, 1.998GHz and 2.017GHz. dominant.
According to the known modal field distribution, we are
now able to excite the desired CDM distribution which
appears at mode #1. Exitation has been done using L-
probe technique (see Fig.1).

3. FULL-WAVE ANALYSIS
In order to get accurate results, IE3D (and partially CST
MWS) was used for further analysis. Patch height was
fixed to H=15mm and series of parametric calculation
was performed. The best L-probe parameters found
regarding matching were Lv=12mm and Lh=15mm (see
Fig. 1 for symbol meanings). Ground plane was
considered to be infinite to speed-up the calculations.
Resonant frequency for mode #1 calculated by IE3D is y
f0=1.797 GHz (see Fig. 3). Comparing with the cavity
model, resonant frequencies differ by 10%. This error is
caused by two main reasons:

- cavity model is valid only for height of the patch

above ground HÆ0 x
- L-probe disturbs ideal distributions of the Ez Figure 4. Surface electric currents of the CDM
under the patch. Naturally, cavity model
doesn’t take L-probe into account
Using simulation by CST-MWS and looking to the
electric field vector 30mm above the antenna, it’s clear
that the Ey component is dominant (see Fig. 5). Electric
field under the patch is quite similar to the TM01 mode
(see Fig. 6)
Figure 5. Snapshot of the Electric field vector, 30mm
above the antenna
Figure 6. Electric field on the patch and under the patch
for two different time snapshots
Calculated farfield (see Fig. 7) cuts shows pattern very
similar to the TM01 mode patch antenna except for the
cross-polar components which are related to the currents
flowing along the vertical part of the L-probe. However,
the X-pol components are at least 15dB below the main
polarization. Maximum directivity was calculated
Dmax=8.6dBi @ 1.8GHz.
Figure 7. φ=0° and φ=90° farfield cuts @ 1.8GHz
The antenna shows quite narrow bandwith, for RL<-
10dB, relative frequency bandwith is 1.5% only.
However, the bandwith could be improved by
increasing the height of the patch above the ground
plane (see later)
4. ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF CDM ANTENNA
Another interesting antenna structure created with the
L-system and presenting CDM is a so-called Inverted
Koch Square patch [2]. The structure is obtained by the
following recipe:
S: F<F<F<F, R: F→F−F++F−F.
We will use the notation IKSn-α-J, where n stands for
the number of performed iterations and α is the so-
called indentation angle [2]. Letter J denotes that the J-
probe is used as the feeding system. The indentation
angle α is defined within the operators + and –. The
seed is a rectangle, the angle for the operator < is thus
β=90°. For the analysis, IKS3-85-J has been selected
(see Fig. 8).
As a first step, modal analysis has been employed to
predict resonances and surface currents. We aimed at
the fundamental mode with the lowest resonant
frequency. Comparison of surface currents obtained
from full-wave and modal analysis is shown at. Fig. 9.
Arrows clearly show two main current paths, both being
in-phase. Thus, the radiation pattern should be
broadside.
 Parametric analysis has been performed to find the Lv1,
Lv2 and Lh dimensions resulting in best matching. Final
dimensions of the J-probe are determined to be
Lv1=20mm, Lh=10mm, Lv2=8mm, Lp=30mm (see Fig.
10). The antenna exhibits directivity of 4.5 – 6.6 dBi
across the working band, the radiation pattern at the
center frequency is shown at Fig. 11.

Figure 11. Farfield cuts @ 2.12GHz for IKS3-85-J,

Lv1=20mm, Lh=10mm, Lv2=8mm, Lp=30mm
Figure 8. Layout of the IKS3-85-J antenna
CONCLUSIONS

Miniature microstrip fractal patch antenna utilizing

special current mode has been described. We call this
mode “crossed diagonal” because it comprises of two
main diagonal paths. Antenna presents interesting
miniature properties addressed both to the CD mode and
to the presence of highly slotted fractal structure.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Figure 9. Surface currents at fundamental mode. Left:
full-wave solution, right: cavity model This research has been supported by the Antenna Centre
of Excellence 2.
0
Lv1=20,Lh=10,Lv2=5 REFERENCES
Lv1=20,Lh=10,Lv2=8
-5 Lv1=20,Lh=10,Lv2=9
Lv1=20,Lh=10,Lv2=10 [1] Hazdra, P.: Widely Configurable L-System Fractal
-10
Antenna Generator. In POSTER 2004 [CD-ROM].
Praha: CVUT FEL Praha, 2004
RL [dB]

-15
Lv1=20, Lh=10, Lv2=8
[2] Hazdra, P., Mazánek, M.: The Miniature Fractal
Patch Antenna, In: Radioelektronika 2005 -
-20
Conference Proceedings. Brno: VUT FEI, Ústav
radioelektroniky, 2005, s. 207-210. ISBN 80-214-
-25
2904-6.
-30 [3] BAHL, I., GBARTIA, P., GARG, R., ITTIPIBOON,
1.8 1.9 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6
f [GHz] A. Microstrip Antenna Design Handbook. Artech
Figure 10. Parametric study on the feeding mechanism House, 2001
parameters