This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been

fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
10.1109/LAWP.2015.2411712, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters
> REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR PAPER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (DOUBLE-CLICK HERE TO EDIT) < 1

Miniaturized UWB Log-Periodic Square Fractal

Antenna
Amrollah Amini, Homayoon Oraizi, Life Senior Member IEEE, Mohammad Amin Chaychi zadeh, Member
IEEE

 46% and provides a miniaturization of 21% compared to [3].

Abstract— In this paper the log-periodic square fractal
geometry is presented for the design of a miniaturized patch
antenna for the UWB services (3.1-10.6 GHz). A miniaturization
factor of 23 percent is achieved with a constant and stable gain in
the desired band. The radiation pattern is broadside, which finds
suitable applications in the UWB radars and medical imaging.
Furthermore, the time-domain performance of the proposed
antenna is investigated. A prototype model of the proposed
antenna is fabricated and measured as a proof of concept.
Index Terms—Fractal antenna, log-periodic antenna, micro-
strip antenna, UWB antenna.
I. INTRODUCTION
M icrostrip antennas are popular due to their different
advantages, such as low fabrication cost, integrability
with electronic devices and small size. However, their narrow-
In this paper, the square fractal is used to miniaturize the
log-periodic antenna for UWB application.
II. THE LOG-PERIODIC PATCH ANTENNA
The structure of a planar log-periodic antenna is shown in
Fig. 1. The feed is of the proximity type. The radiating patches
are placed on the upper substrate in a log-periodic
configuration. At a particular frequency, only several patches
along the antenna are excited and radiate, which are called
active elements. The resonance frequency of adjacent patches
are related logarithmically, so that the length, width and
spacing of m’th and (m+1)’th elements are related by
L W
  m 1  m 1
Lm Wm
(1)

where Lm and Wm are the length and width of m’th patch,

band performance limits their applications in UWB systems.
In order to compensate for such a disadvantage, various
structures have been proposed, such as monopole, quasi-Yagi
and Vivaldi antennas. The radiation pattern of monopole
antenna is of the quasi-omnidirectional form. It has a suitable
bandwidth despite its simple structure [1]. However, the gain
of monopole antenna is quite erratic in the desired band.
The Vivaldi antenna is another type of UWB antenna [2],
which has an end-fire radiation based on the traveling wave
mechanism. The radiation pattern of the Vivaldi antenna is
quite stable in its frequency band of operation, which makes it
appropriate for UWB applications.
Application of log-periodic structures to antenna
configuration may lead to 50% increase in bandwidth together
with stable radiation pattern [3]. However, the dimensions of
log-periodic antennas are quite large, because several patches
are needed in their structure to cover the desired frequency
band. Consequently, the miniaturization of such antennas are
particularly desirable. Accordingly the application of fractal
geometries is an effective method for the miniaturization of
patch antennas. A broadside log-periodic microstrip antenna
using artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) as the ground
plane is introduced in [4], which has a relative bandwidth of
Manuscript submitted October 20, 2014
A. Amini, H. Oraizi and M. A. Chaychi zadeh are with the Department of
Electrical Engineering and Center of Excellence in Railway Transportation,
Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran. (emails:
amini_am@elec.iust.ac.ir, h_oraizi@iust.ac.ir, aminchaichizade@yahoo.com)
respectively. d m is the distance of the m’th patch from the
feed point.
III. THE FRACTAL PATCH ANTENNA
Since the fractal geometries are generated by an iterative
procedure, they can generate a large surface area or a long
length in a limited volume or space. In microstrip patch
antennas, the increase of path lengths of currents leads to the
decrease of frequency and consequently the miniaturization of
electrical length of antenna. The increase of current path
length may be affected by the fractal geometries. Furthermore,
the self-similarity of fractals may lead to the multi-banding of
antenna performance, where the number of bands may be
determined by the order of fractal iteration.
Fig. 2 shows the first and second iterations of the square
fractal. The rotated nested rectangular slots generated inside a
rectangular patch is considered a fractal geometry and has the
self-similarity property [6]. The related relations of such a
fractal geometry with no rotation are given in [7].
In order to investigate the miniaturization property of
square fractal, the resonance frequency of first iteration fractal
is compared with that of simple square patch. The feed of
antenna is by the electromagnetic coupling or proximity type
shown in Fig. 1. By varying the length of feed line, the degree
of coupling between the feed line and patch may be adjusted.

1536-1225 (c) 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See
http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
10.1109/LAWP.2015.2411712, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters
> REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR PAPER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (DOUBLE-CLICK HERE TO EDIT) < 2

S-Parameter [Magnitude in dB]

0

-5

-10

-15

S11(dB)
-20

-25

-30
Regular Patch
-35 Square Fractal

-40
2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3 3.2 3.4 3.6
Frequency(GHz)
Fig. 1. Log-periodic patch antenna. Fig. 3. Return loss of antennas with conventional patch and square
fractal patch.
S-Parameter [Magnitude in dB]
0

-10

Fig. 2. First and second iterations of the square fractal. -20

S11(dB)
-30
The antenna radiation is generated mainly from the hot spots
of the antenna surface, where the surface currents are -40
Square Fractal
concentrated. The hot spot moves, as the operation frequency -50
2.6 2.8 3 3.2 3.4 3.6
changes. Consequently, the feed strip should extend towards Frequency(GHz)

the hot spots [8]. The substrate Rogers RO4003 is used, with Fig. 4. Return loss of square fractal antenna of the first iteration with
dielectric constant  r  3.55 , height h= 60 mil and loss dimensions 21.5×21.5 mm2.
tangent = 0.0021. The dimensions of the simple patch and
TABLE I
square patch are 24.5×24.5 mm2. The return losses of the DIMENSIONS OF SQUARES AND THEIR DISTANCES FROM FEED POINT
simple square patch and fractal square patch are shown in Fig.
Patch Dimension of Patch Distance from feed point dm
3. Observe that the resonance frequency of fractal antenna is number (mm2) (mm)
lower than that of the simple patch by about 500 MHz. The 1 21.5×21.5 156
amount of decrease of resonance frequency depends on the 2 19.8×19.8 140
dimensions of the square and width of slots. Observe that the 3 18.3×18.3 125
decrease of resonance frequency is accompanied by the 4 16.8×16.8 111
5 15.5×15.5 98
decrease of its relative bandwidth. Consequently, the 6 14.3×14.3 85.5
aforementioned parameters should be selected in such a way 7 13.2×13.2 74
that antenna miniaturization is obtained with the retention of 8 12.1×12.1 63.5
bandwidth. 9 11.2×11.2 53
10 10.3×10.3 44
11 9.5×9.5 35.5
IV. PROPOSED LOG-PERIODIC SQUARE FRACTAL ANTENNA 12 8.8×8.8 27
13 8×8 19.5
It is intended to design an antenna for the UWB system 14 7.4×7.4 12
from 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz with a bandwidth of 7.5 GHz. The 15 6.9×6.9 6
dimensions of the fractal patch are determined for the lower
frequency limit of the band (namely 3.1 GHz), which are
obtained 21.5×21.5 mm2 by full wave computer simulation. of the antenna, the scale factor is selected equal to   1.085 .
The return loss of the square fractal antenna of the first For f1=3.1 GHz and fN=10.6 GHz, the number of squares is
iteration is drawn in Fig. 4. N=15. The whole structure of fractal square antenna is drawn
in Fig. 5. Its length is 173 mm and its width is 70 mm. The
The ratio of resonance frequencies of the n’th patch ( f n ) to optimized dimensions of squares and their distances from the
first patch ( f1 ) is: feed point (dm) are given in Table I. The miniaturization of the
proposed antenna relative to that in reference [3] is about 23%.
fn
n  (2) The return loss of antenna is drawn in Fig. 6. Its radiation
f1 patterns at frequencies 3.1, 5, 7 and 10.6 GHz are drawn in
Therefore, the number of patches (N) for the coverage of a Fig. 7. The appearance of beam squint of the radiation pattern
specified bandwidth is: is due to increase of active region on the antenna at higher
log(f N )  log(f1 ) frequencies [9]. The simultaneous excitation and radiation of
N (3) higher modes at higher frequencies tend to affect and
log( ) deteriorate the antenna patterns at high frequencies. In order to
Note that the length of side of each square patch is equal to counteract such destructive effects, the smaller square patches
half wavelength of its resonance frequency. In order to at the end of array are used without square slots to prevent the
achieve the specified bandwidth with the highest compactness higher frequency modes.

1536-1225 (c) 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See
http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
10.1109/LAWP.2015.2411712, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters
> REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR PAPER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (DOUBLE-CLICK HERE TO EDIT) < 3

Fig. 5. Proposed log-periodic square fractal antenna.

0

-10

-20
S11(dB)

-30

-40
Measurement
Simulation
-50
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Frequency(GHz)
Fig. 6. Return loss of proposed antenna.

TABLE II
COMPARISON OF MICROSTRIP LOG PERIODIC ANTENNAS Fig. 7. Radiation patterns of log-periodic square fractal antenna at
several frequencies for UWB (a) 3.1 GHz (b) 5 GHz (c) 7 GHz (d)
Min Perform. BW 10.6 GHz. Simulation (continuous line), measurement (dotted line).
Antenna Method Rad. Dir.
(%) Mech. (%)

LPMA [4]
AMC 21 Proximity
Feed
46 broadside Ideally the phase of transfer function  ( ) should be linear.
Fractal 21.6 Fractal Alternately, a fidelity factor is defined which evaluates the
LPDA [10] 67 end fire
LPDA system pulse fidelity [14]:
Fractal 12 Koch 
LPKDA [11] Fractal
LPDA
40 end fire
s in (t) s out (t   ) dt
- 0 Simple FF  max( 
) (6)
LPDA   
Dipole 44 end fire
 |s  |s
[12][13] 2 2
SIW Feed in (t) | dt . out (t) | dt
Proposed Fractal 23 Proximity  
110 broadside
Antenna Feed In this relation, the cross correlation of two signals (namely sin
and sout) and their similarity are tested. In ideal systems
It is expected to have some variation of frequency response of without any distortion, fidelity factor is equal to 1. The value
antenna gain, because the surface area of active region of of FF for the proposed antenna is calculated equal to 0.72.
antenna at different frequencies changes. The geometrical data Generally, the performance of log-periodic antennas in short
and performance of different antennas are given in Table II for pulse systems is not optimum, because of the type of current
comparison. The performance of these antennas is based on distribution and displacement of phase center. Fig. 9 shows the
multi-resonance. Fig. 8 gives the efficiency and gain of the group delay for the broadside radiation of a transmit-receive
proposed antenna. system with log-periodic square fractal antennas. The group
delay of antenna is considered satisfactory for log-periodic
V. TIME DOMAIN ANALYSIS antennas, since the phase of radiation field is basically
In UWB and communication systems with high bit rates, proportional to logarithm of frequency. Such antennas are
the impedance bandwidth and radiation stability should be suitable for OFDM systems [15]. However, such an antenna
achieved together with the maintenance of pulse integrity in structure is not appropriate for Impulse-Radio UWB Systems.
the whole frequency band, which amounts to the group delay The Dispersive-Delay-Structures (DDS) may be used to
being constant. Assume that the complex transfer function compensate such behavior [16].
including the transmitter, channel and receiver has the form
VI. CONCLUSION
j ( )
H ()  A()e (4) Fractal geometries are appropriate structures for
The group delay is obtained as miniaturization and multi-banding of antennas.
 ( )
g   (5)


1536-1225 (c) 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See
http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
10.1109/LAWP.2015.2411712, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters
> REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR PAPER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (DOUBLE-CLICK HERE TO EDIT) <
Fig. 8. Radiation and total efficiencies of proposed antenna.
14
12
10
Group Delay(nS)
6 multiband microstrip antenna using the square and
4 giuseppe peano fractals," IEEE Transactions on Antennas
2
0
-2
-4
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Frequency(GHz)
Fig. 9. Group delay.
Fig. 10. The fabricated antenna.
Accordingly, a log-periodic formation of square fractals is
presented for broadside radiation in UWB services, where
square slots are cut in the square patches. The larger square
patches are fitted with square slots, but the smaller patches
lack such slots, in order to maintain the performance of
radiation patterns at higher frequencies. The geometry of log-
periodic antenna is adjusted to obtain 23% size reduction
relative to the simple square patch array. The behavior of the
proposed log-periodic fractal configuration is further
investigated in time-domain. A prototype model of the antenna
is fabricated and measured which verifies its desirable
characteristics. Its photograph is shown in Fig. 10.
REFERENCES
[1] J. Liang, C. C. Chiau and X. Chen, "Study of printed
circular disc monopole antenna for UWB systems," IEEE
Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, pp. 3500-
3504, 2005.
[2] D. Schaubert, E. Kollberg, T. Korzeniowski, T.
Thungren, J. Johansson and K. Yngvesson, "Endfire
tapered slot antennas on dielectric substrates," IEEE
Transactions on Antannas and Propagation, vol. 33, no.
12, pp. 1392-1400, 1985.
[3] P. Hall, "New wideband microstrip antenna using log-
periodic technique," Electronic Letters, vol. 16, no. 4, pp.
1536-1225 (c) 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See
http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
4
127-128, 1980.
[4] Almutawa, A.T.; Mumcu, G., "Small artificial magnetic
conductor backed log-periodic microstrip patch antenna,"
Microwaves, Antennas & Propagation, IET , vol.7, no.14,
pp.1137,1144, Nov. 19 2013
[5] Romodin, V.B.; Oznobikhin, V.I.; Kopylov, V.V., "Log
periodic microstrip array," High Power Microwave
Electronics: Measurements, Identification, Applications,
1999. MIA-ME '99. Proceedings of the IEEE-Russia
Conference , vol., no., pp.IV4,IV6, 1999
[6] H. Peitgen, H. Jurgens and D. Saupe, “Chaos and Fractals
New Frontier of Science”, Springer, 2004, p. 140.
[7] H. Oraizi and S. Hedayati, "Circularly polarized
and Propagation, vol. 60, no. 7, pp. 3466-3470, 2012.
[8] R. B. Waterhouse, Microstrip Patch Antennas: A
Designer's Guide, Springer Science, 2003.
11
[9] J.R. James, and P.S. Hall, "Handbook of Microstrip
Antennas”, Peter Peregrinus Ltd, 1989
[10] Gheethan, A.A.; Anagnostou, D.E., "Reduced size planar
Log-Periodic Dipole Arrays (LPDAs) using rectangular
meander line elements," Antennas and Propagation
Society International Symposium, 2008. AP-S 2008.
IEEE , vol., no., pp.1,4, 5-11 July 2008
[11] Anagnostou, D.E.; Papapolymerou, J.; Tentzeris, M.M.;
Christodoulou, C.G., "A Printed Log-Periodic Koch-
Dipole Array (LPKDA)," Antennas and Wireless
Propagation Letters, IEEE , vol.7, no., pp.456,460, 2008
[12] Zhai, G.H.; Cheng, Y.; Min, D.; Zhu, S.Z.; Gao, J.J.,
"Wideband simplified feed for printed log-periodic dipole
array antenna," Electronics Letters , vol.49, no.23,
pp.1430,1432, Nov. 7 2013
[13] Zhai, G.; Cheng, Y.; Yin, Q.; Chiu, L.; Zhu, S.; Gao, J.,
"Super High Gain Substrate Integrated Clamped-Mode
Printed Log-Periodic Dipole Array Antenna," Antennas
and Propagation, IEEE Transactions on , vol.61, no.6,
pp.3009,3016, June 2013
[14] G. Quintero, J. Zurcher and A. Skrivervik, "System
fidelity factor : a new method for comparing UWB
antenna," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and
Propagation, vol. 59, no. 7, pp. 2502-2512, 2011.
[15] Wiesbeck, W.; Adamiuk, G.; Sturm, C., "Basic Properties
and Design Principles of UWB Antennas," Proceedings
of the IEEE , vol.97, no.2, pp.372,385, Feb. 2009
[16] S. Gupta, A. Parsa, E. Perret, R. Synder, R. Wenzel and
C. Caloz, "Group delay engineered noncommensurate
transmission line all-pass network for analog signal
processing," IEEE Transactions on Theory and
Techniques, vol. 58, no. 9, pp. 2392-2407, 2010
[17] N. Kaneda, Y. Qian and T. Itoh, "A broadband
microstrip-to-waveguide transition using quasi-yagi
antenna," IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory
and Techniques, vol. 47, no. 12, pp. 2562-2567, 1999.