Fourth International Multi-Conference on Systems, Signals & Devices Volume III : Conference on

March 19-22, 2007 – Hammamet, Tunisia Communication & Signal Processing

STUDY OF A LOG PERIODIC ANTENNA

WITH PRINTED DIPOLE
1, 2
Med Salah KAROUI, 1,2Med Ali SKIMA, 1, 2Hamadi GHARIANI, 1, 2Mounir SAMET
1
Laboratory of Electronics and Technologies of Information (LETI)
2
Micro Electronic & Medical Electronic Team (MEEM)
National School of Engineers of Sfax
Phone (+216) 74 274 088 - Fax: (+216) 74 275 595 - BP W 3038
Emails: mohamedsalah.karoui@issatm.rnu.tn , karoui_mohamedsalah@yahoo.fr

ABSTRACT
In this paper we were study a wide band antenna working
in the ISM band and intended particularly for the medical
telemetry. The use of wide band requires antennas whose
parameters remain the most constant possible on the
entire useful band. These antennas are characterized by a
structure defined by angles or by a structure depending on
a homothetic ratio. These principles are based
respectively on the equiangular and the log periodic
antennas. We were interested to the log periodic structure
and particularly to the planar structures; we have
presented the most important factors witch intervene in
the design of such structures then we analyze their effect
on the antenna performance and finally we choice the
final antenna dimension.
Keywords: Log periodic antennas, frequency
independent antennas, ISM band.
1. INTRODUCTION
frequency [2]. This is a very simple and powerful idea for
the design of broadband antennas, which are referred to as
frequency independent antennas for the ideal case. In
addition to angle dependence, Isbell was introduced
another structure whose properties vary periodically with
the logarithm of frequency: the Log-periodic Dipole
Antennas (LPDA) [3]. This structure was studied
extensively by Carrel [4]. In his work, he derived
mathematical formulas to obtain the input impedance
based on the design parameters of the log periodic dipole
antenna. Since in practice the antenna must have a finite
length, the radiation characteristics vary considerably
below the lower frequency limit. This phenomenon is
termed as "truncation effect" (effect of finite length). In
contrast to the truncation effect, the input impedance can
be maintained at a constant value at higher frequencies,
because the antenna structure can be regarded locally as
mutual complement.
2. LOG-PERIODIC DIPOLE ANTENNA DESIGN
PARAMETER

A ntennas usually exhibit different radiation properties

at different frequencies since their dimensions, when
expressed in terms of wavelength, vary with frequency.
The variations of radiation characteristics with frequency
limit the bandwidth of the antenna and thus the
information carrying capacity of the communication link
to which the antenna belongs. The issue of frequency
independent antennas, which ideally provide an infinite
bandwidth, was first addressed by Rumsey [1]. His simple
but significant theory has become the foundation for
studying many wideband antennas, such as equiangular
antenna and log-periodic antenna (LPA). Rumsey
proposed that if the shape of a lossless antenna can be
specified entirely by angles (principle of equiangular
antenna), its performance such as pattern and input
impedance would remain unchanged with frequency. In
other words, the dimensions of this class of antennas,
when expressed in terms of wavelength, are the same at
every frequency. The implication is that electrical
characteristics of the antenna do not change with
One of the most important parameters that describe log
periodic antennas in general is presented in Equation (1).
This parameter is known as the scaling factor. This
scaling factor allows the antenna dimensions to remain
constant in terms of wavelength λ. The condition is
necessary to maintain the same impedance and radiation
characteristics over a wide range of frequencies.
Ln +1 d n +1 Rn +1
τ
= = = (1)
Ln dn Rn
Were (figure 1):
Rn : distance from the top to the nth element
Ln : total length of the nth element
dn : distance between the nth element and the (n+1)th
element.
This factor should be less than 1 and when the frequency
is increased by a factor 1 , the input impedance, VSWR
τ

ISBN 978-9973-959-06-5 / SSD © 2007

 and radiation pattern should be very similar to the values
from the previous period.
Figure 1: Log-periodic dipole antenna
Another important factor was given in the equation (2)
witch relate the spacing between adjacent elements: the
spacing factor σ.
d1 dn 1−τ
σ
= = =
4l1 4ln 4 tan α '
(2)
This space shrinks when frequency increases. One way to
make each cycle similar to the preceding, is to make the
design parameter α’ small (equation 3) which implies that
the elements are spaced more closely and more elements
will be present in the active region. But we must be
careful with the parameter α’ because if it is set to a value
which is too small or too large it will destroy the
impedance bandwidth of the antenna. If the antenna
elements are placed too close together or are extremely
separated the reflection coefficient increases above the -
10 dB level destroying.
 1−τ 
α ' = tan −1   (3)
 4σ 
3. PRINCIPLES OF OPERATION
Radiation energy, at a given frequency, travels along the
feeder until it reaches a section of the structure where the
electrical lengths of the elements and phase relationships
are such as to produce the radiation. As frequency is
varied, the position of the resonant element is moved
smoothly from one element to the next.
The bandwidth of the antenna is usually determined by
the cutoff frequencies of the shorter and longest elements
in the structure witch have a length of λ . The largest
2
element determines the cutoff frequency at the low end
then the shorter element at the higher end. Usually, more
elements are added at high frequencies to ensure smooth
high frequency characteristics.
4. CHOICE OF THE NUMBER OF DIPOLE
The number of dipole needed to reach a band is a very
important parameter and it depend usually on the antenna
parameter such τ, σ and α. In [5], the authors exposed that
the number of elements that were shorter than the
resonating dipole were important for small τ values
because without them a remarkable degradation on the
gain and the input impedance could occur. We fix at the
beginning four bands, BW1 between 400 MHz & 870
MHz, BW2 between 400 MHz & 3 GHz, BW3 between
400 MHz & 4 GHz and finally BW4 between 400 MHz &
5 GHz to estimate the variation of the number of dipole
according to the scale factor τ. We obtain the curve given
by figure 2.
Nombre de dipôles
60
50 BW1
BW2
BW3
40 BW4
30
N
20
10
0
0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7
tau
0.75 0.8 0.85 0.9 0.95
Figure 2: Variation of the number of dipoles in function of τ
According to this figure, we notice that to total number
increase with the bandwidth and the scale factor τ and it
become very important for the value which exceeds
τ=0.85. For this value, N varies between 6 & 16. We
choice the frequency band BW (400 MHz to 3 GHz)
witch include some ISM band, we obtain so N=13.
5. CHOICE OF THE SPACING FACTOR
The second step in our work is the fixation of the spacing
factor σ witch is related to the scaling factor τ and the
angle α’ (equation 2 & 3). It is an important parameter
witch fixes the spacing between the adjacent elements so
the total length of our antenna. We test the variation of
this factor for particular values of α’ and τ, we obtain so
the result shown in the figure 3.
 0.8
Espacement
10° In practice, we can choice the ratio h between 1 & 20 to
11.25° a
0.7 12.85°
15° limit the dimensions. Also, the dipole impedance Za can
0.6
18°
22.5°
have two particular values: 50Ω or 75Ω witch depend
0.5
30° necessary of the feeder impedance Z0. We test so the
45°
55°
variation of the ratio Z a in function of the feeder
sigma

0.4 56.25°
57.85° Z0
60°
impedance Z0 and the ratio h . We obtain the result
0.3
63°
54.5°
0.2 75° a
0.1
shown in the figure 5.

0 Impédance du dipôle
0.5 0.55 0.6 0.65 0.7 0.75 0.8 0.85 0.9 0.95
3 h/a=5
tau h/a=6
h/a=7
2.5 h/a=8
Figure 3: Variation of σ in function of τ and α’ h/a=9
h/a=10
2 h/a=11
h/a=12
It is noticed that for α’ between 10° & 75° and τ = 0.85, σ 1.5
h/a=13
h/a=14
decrease from 0.212 to 0.01. As we said in the last h/a=15

Za/z0
h/a=16
paragraph, we must take care in the choice of the spacing 1 h/a=17
h/a=18
parameter σ because it influences directly on the
0.5
performances of our antenna like the gain and impedance.
Also, we prefer small values of α’ to occupy the smallest 0

surface so the significant value is α’ = 18° witch give us

finally σ = 0.115. -0.5
50 100 150 200 250 300
Z0

6. STUDY OF THE ANTENNA IMPEDANCE

Figure 5: Variation of Za /Z0 in function of h/a and Z0
As we have seen in our previous work [6-10], the antenna
impedance is a very important parameter and its value It is noticed that for particular values of h (from 5 to 18),
cans influences on the antenna response so it must be a
accorded with the impedance of the other blocs as the if Z0 increase (from 50Ω to 300Ω) the ratio Z a decrease.
emitter or receptor module. Our structure formed of 13 Z0
elements and every element have a proper impedance For Z0 = 50Ω, it varies from 0 to 3 and to reach the
depending also on the half length of the dipole h and the particular value 1 witch means that Za = Z0 = 50Ω, we
wire rayon a. So we must estimate the variation of the must choice h =8.
dipole impedance according to h and a. We obtain the a
results of the figure 4. Finally, we can simulate the total input impedance of our
LPDA witch depend also on the feeder impedance Z0, the
ratio h and the dipole impedance Za. We obtain the
Impédance du dipôle
600
a
500 results of the figure 6.

400 Impédance du LPDA

0.9
h/a=5
h/a=6
Za

300 0.8
h/a=7
h/a=8
0.7
h/a=9
200 h/a=10
0.6
h/a=11
h/a=12
100 0.5
h/a=13
Z/Z0

h/a=14
0.4 h/a=15
0 h/a=16
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 0.3
h/a h/a=17
h/a=18
0.2 h/a=50
h/a=100
Figure 4: Variation of Za in function of h/a 0.1

0
50 100 150 200 250 300
According to this figure, we notice that this impedance Z0

increase with the ratio h and it varies between 100 Ω &

a Figure 6: Variation of Z /Z0 in function of h/a and Z0
550 Ω for a ratio going from 1 to 100.
According to this figure, the ratio Z never reach 1 and
Z0
9. REFERENCES
the maximum value is 0.88 for h = 100. Also this ratio [1] V.H. RUMSEY, "Frequency Independent Antennas"
a
IRE national convention record, Part 1, pp. 114-118,
decrease if Z0 increase and for Z0 = 50Ω and h =8 it is 1957.
a
equal to 0.6.
[2] V.H. RUMSEY, "Frequency Independent Antennas"
Academic Press. New York, 1996.
7. FINAL ANTENNA DIMENSIONS
[3] D.E. ISBELL, "Log-periodic Dipole Arrays", IEEE
The final parameters of our antenna are: τ = 0.85, σ
Transaction on Antenna and Propagation, Volume 8,
= 0.115, α’ = 18°, N = 13, h = 8 and the operating band Issue 3, pp. 260-267, May 1960.
a
is: BW from 400 MHz to 3 GHz. The different [4] R.L. CARREL, "Analysis and Design of the Log-
dimensions are resumed in the table 1. periodic Dipole Antenna", Ph.D Dissertation,
Electrical Engineering Department, University of
Table 1: Final dimensions of the LPDA
Illinois, 1961.
№ h ( cm) d ( cm)
[5] G. De VITO, G. STRACCA, "Comments on the
1 18.75 8.66 Design of Log-Periodic Dipole Antennas", IEEE
2 15.94 7.36 Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Volume
3 13.55 6.25 21 Issue 3, May 1973. Page(s): 303 – 308.
4 11.51 5.32
5 9.79 4.52 [6] M.S. KAROUI, H. GHARIANI, M.A. SKIMA,
6 8.32 3.84 "Etude des antennes en boucles « Loop Antennas »",
7 7.07 3.26 Journées Scientifiques Francophones JSF, 20-22
8 6.01 2.77 Décembre 2003, Tozeur, Tunisie.
9 5.11 2.36
[7] M.A. SKIMA, H. GHARIANI, M.S KAROUI, "Étude
10 4.34 2
et conception d’un système de caractérisation des
11 3.69 1.7 signaux radiofréquences en émission et réception ",
12 3.14 1.45 Conférence Internationale SETIT 2004, 15-20
13 2.67 Mars 2004, Sousse, TUNISIE

[8] M.S. KAROUI, H. GHARIANI, M. SAMET, "Study

8. CONCLUSION and Design of a Loop Antenna for Medical
Telemetry Application", Third International
In this paper, we have studied a particular type of wide Conference on Systems, Signals & Devices, March
band antennas: the log-periodic antenna. This antenna 21-24, 2005 – Sousse, Tunisia
formed with N dipoles depending on a homothetic ratio.
The antenna band is BW: 400 MHz to 3 GHz and we [9] M.S. KAROUI, M.A. SKIMA, H. GHARIANI, M.
have deduced that we need 13 elements in the structures SAMET,"Matching loop antenna to the transmetter-
to reach it. Also this antenna has a big size compared to receptor module", Conférence Internationale JTEA
this designed in our previous work [8] but the advantage 2006, 12-14 Mai 2006, Hammamet, TUNISIE.
is that with this structure we can reach a wide band unlike
the other antenna witch is designed around 433 MHz. [10] M.A. SKIMA, M.S. KAROUI, H. GHARIANI, M.
Also in the actual study we supposed that the feeder SAMET, "S parameters extraction of multi-port
impedance was constant and equal to 50Ω but in practice, network using PSPICE" , Conférence internationale
this value change from an element to the other because at JTEA 2006, 12-14 Mai 2006, Hammamet, TUNISIE
the resonating frequency of any elements the feeder
impedance was added to the others impedances of the
shorter and lounger elements witch will destroy the
impedance according. So the ideal case is to choice a
feeder with variable impedance to have a constant value
at the resonating frequency. Our actual work is
concentrate on the miniaturization of the antenna
dimension with the multilayer technique and the
improvement of the antenna performances.