A Simplified Koch Multiband Fractal Array Using Windowing and

Quantization Techniques

S. E. El-Khamy+, Fellow I€€€,

M. A. Aboul-Dahab*, Senior I€€€and M. I. Elkashlan'", Sfudenlmemberl€€€

Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University,

Alexandria 2 1544, Egypt. E-mail:elkhamy@aast.edu
Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,
Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport, Alexandria, Egypt.
It Department of Electrical Engineering, Arizona State University, Arizona, USA.

1. Introduction

Ideal fractal shapes can be generated by applying an iterative algorithm an infinite

number of times. In such a procedure, an initial structure called generator is replicated many
times at different scales, positions and directions to grow into a final fractal structure [I].
Recently, there has been a god amount of research in the area of fractal antennas, apertures
and arrays [2]-[3]. Fractal-radiating systems can be used to obtain multiband behavior in
which the side lobe ratio and radiation pattem characteristics are held similar at several
frequency bands. Koch fractal array factors are dealt with in [4], the pattern is based on a
well-known set of fractal curves, the Koch curves. The array will radiate through a scaled
version of the whole array factor when the visible region is altered by means of a change in
the operating frequency.To obtain multiband behavior, the visible range coresponding to a
desired band is centered at a secondary lobe that has the same shape as the total pattern.

In this paper, the generation and behavior of the fractal Koch array factor from a Kaiser
window generator is studied. The main advantage of using Kaiser windows is that pattern
parameters become much more flexible through altering the Kaiser window. The mainlobe
width, current distribution, side-lobe ratio are now adjustable. Different reduced array
structures can be obtained by using different threshold levels. Higher threshold values
result in a highly reduced number of elements but they may highly distort the pattern and,
hence, the multiband behavior. Finally, we study the effect of quantization of the feeding
values. Quantization is necessary for implementation and simplification purposes. Several
configurations of current distributions with the corresponding pattems are illustrated for
different quantization levels. It is shown that moderate quantization keeps the same
interesting similarity properties at several bands.

2. Fractal Radiation Patterns

The main feature of a Koch fractal pattern is that each lobe of the array factor is similar
to the whole pattem. The Koch pattern K( yr) is given by [4],

Where, F(v) is the single pulse function, 6 is the scaling factor (positive integer), M is the
number of iterations and a is an arbitrarily chosen amplitude factor. The function, F(y) can
in general be taken to have any arbitrary shape such as a rectangular window, Blackman
window, raised cosine or a Kaiser window.

When the array radiates at a longer wavelength, the visible range is reduced and only a
fraction of the whole array factor appears in the radiation pattem. By using a suitable
progressive phase shift, the visible region is reduced around one of the secondary lobes

0-7803-6369-8/00/$10.0002000 IEEE 1716

Authorized licensed use limited to: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SILCHAR. Downloaded on December 26,2021 at 03:59:46 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 and the visible pattern is kept the same as the original one. A frequency reduction by a
factor of (IiQwould reduce the visible region by Garound a secondary lobe.

3. Reduced Quantized Kaiser-Koch Arrays

The array current distribution is basically a superposition of the inverse transforms of

the pulse generator F(w). It is then better to choose a pulse generator having a low side-
lobe level transform to allow a better truncation of the Koch arrays. The Blackman window
is known of having low side lobes in the transformed domain. The resulting array relative
current distribution has lower side-lobes and a better confinement around the central
elements. A threshold level can then be set to observe which elements are important in the
pattern synthesis and which are not.

On the other hand, Kaiser windows are also characterized by having a low side-lobes in
the transformed domain. A Kaiser window is given by W r ( n ) = m for Inl‘k.? and is
‘,(U) 2
zero otherwise, where I.(x) is the zeroth-order modified Bessel function of the first kind, y is
the Kaiser independent parameter and P=r
m
,- 2n . Kaiser windows allow an

independent control of the mainlobe width by altering the yfactor. Smaller values for y result
in a wider heamwidth, while larger values result in a narrower beamwidth.

Fig. 1 shows a Kaiser-Koch pattern configuration with its corresponding current

distribution. A Kaiser pulse and a scaling factor 6 = 3, an amplitude factor a = 1, and a
Kaiser independent parameter 1’2 were chosen for generating the pattern with M=6
iterations. Not only the main lobe width is controllable, but also the current distribution and
its side lobe level. Thus, controlling the threshold level that discerns which important
elements are chosen for the pattern synthesis and which are not. By proper selection of y,
the current side-lobes cahe made very low as shown in F i g 2 for ~ 2 0 In. this figure the
patterns and current distribution are compared with the corresponding ones obtained when
using a Blackman window. In particular, the Kaiser’s current distribution reached a minimum
of while that of the Blackman reached a minimum of the corresponding fractal
patterns are close to each other. The effect of threshold level is shown in Fig.3. The smaller
the threshold corresponds to a lessnumber of elements on the expense of pattern distortion.
The distortion appears mostly at the lower bands.

Fig. I Upper graph is a Kaiser-Koch Pattern constructed with M = 6, 6=3, a = I , y= 2, Lower

graph is the corresponding current distribution in logarithmic scale.
Kaiser-Koch Pattern M = 4 . 6 3 , @ 4 Blackman-Koch Pattern M = 4 , 6 3 , c s 4

1117

Authorized licensed use limited to: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SILCHAR. Downloaded on December 26,2021 at 03:59:46 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Fig.2 A comparison between (a) Kaiser-Koch and Blackman-Koch array Factors,
constructed from M=4, 6=3, a=4,~ 2 0(b)
. Current distributions.

Kaiser-Koch Pattern M = 6. 6 3, a=I . y I O , threshold value = -7OdB. 48 element

w 2010g(z)

20log(z)

1718

Authorized licensed use limited to: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SILCHAR. Downloaded on December 26,2021 at 03:59:46 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Fig.3 Effect of threshold level on the Kaiser-Koch array Factor, constructed from M=6, 6.3,
a=l,~ 1 0RHS . is the current distribution for its corresponding LHS pattern after element
reduction due to applied threshold.
Quantizing the resultant Kaiser-Koch array is important for realization purposes. An
infinite number of amplitude levels would be impossible to implement. The existence of a
finite number of discrete amplitude levels is brought through converting the continuous
infinite current range into a finite range. Therefore, quantizing is a must to practically
construct the array. Fig.4 shows two configurations of a 38 element quantized Kaiser-Koch
array. Here the threshold value is taken -60dB and a=l, ~ 5 In .the case of 64-quantization
level the resultant pattern is almost not affected. On the other hand when the numer of
quantization levels is educed to only 4 a noticible pattern distortion results.

4. Conclusion

Simplified multi-band Kaiser-Koch patterns have been investigated in this paper.

Numerical results show that if the threshold is reduced to a value of -130dB, the pattern is
conformed with only 82 elements (using Kaiser generator) instead of 256 elements (using
Blackman generator) operating at five bands through a whole 81.1 frequency range. The
main advantage of using Kaiser windows is that the pattern may easily be altered through
the Kaiser independent parameter 7. This flexibility parameter does not only allow the
control of the mainlobe width but also the current distrlbution and its side lobe level.
Quantizing the resultant Kaiser-Koch array through a moderste number of quantization
levels, e.g. 64, keeps the self-similarity fractal properties and hence the multi-band behavior.

References

[I] H. Peitgen, H. Jurgens, and D. Saupe, Chaos and Fractals, Spriger-Verlag, 1992.
[2] D. H. Werner, R. L. Haupt, and P. L. Werner, “Fractal Antenna Engineering: The Theory
and design of Fractal Antenna Arrays,” IEEE Antennas & Propagation Magazine, Vol.
41, no. 5, pp. 37-59, October 1999.
[3] Y. Kim and D. L. laggard, ” The Fractal random Array,” Proc. IEEE, vol. 74, no. 9, pp.
1278-1280, Sept. 1986.
[4] C. Puente and R. Pous, “ Fractal Design of Multiband and Low Side-lobe Arrays,” IE€€
Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 44, no. 5, pp. 730-739, May 1996.

(a) (b)

Fig.4 Effect of quanization on the Kaiser-Koch pattern for a threshold value of-60dB
corresponding to 38 elements. a) 64 quantization levels. B) 8 quantization levels.

1719

. -

Authorized licensed use limited to: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SILCHAR. Downloaded on December 26,2021 at 03:59:46 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.