CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW AND PROBLEM FORMULATION

Extensive research work has been done by the distinguished researchers to

enhance the performance parameters of a fractal antenna, and MPA in the past
decades. This chapter mainly deals with the motivation to carry the research on
aforementioned antennas, study of work that has been done by the various
researchers, challenges faced by distinguished researchers and the based on
challenges, problem identification is marked along with the objectives of the thesis.
The study of the research work carried out by various researchers is listed below:

2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW

Zavosh and Aberle [140] (1996), the paper illustrates patch-antenna with cavity-
backed geometry, and features shorting posts and multiple dielectric layers. These
distinctive attributes are exhibited to design proposed antennas which may possess
various desirable characteristics of microstrip antennas.

C. Punete et al. [28] (1998), this paper exhibits the multiband behaviour of the
Sierpinski fractal antenna. The discussed antenna is also compared with the bow-tie
antenna. The antenna is simulated and fabricated. The experimental and simulated
results depict the self-similarity properties which is mainly responsible for the
electromagnetic behavior of antenna.

C. P. Baliarda et al. [29] (2000), this paper projects the iterative transmission line
model which demonstrates the behavior of the Sierpinski fractal antenna. The
proposed geometry illustrates the multiband characteristics. The different flare angles
(α) has been used to predict the behavior of the the Sierpinski fractal antenna, and
found the most precise behavior at α = 30o.

36
J. P. Gianvittorio et al. [88] (2002), this paper premeditates the Fractal geometry
based on recursive generating methodology. The natural fractal geometry found as
coastlines and clouds which can be used to model complex objects. These fractal
geometry exhibits space-filling properties which is quite helpful in
miniaturization of antennas. These recursive contours are helpful to include more
electrical length in limited volume. Fractals are shapes which are easy to explain
and can be modelled mathematically with increased number of iterations.
Antennas can easily miniaturize by using the space-filling property of the fractals
without any extra expense. It has been observed in this paper that how fractal
antenna can be used in linear arrays with avoiding grating lobes.

D. C. Chang and J. X. Zheng [32] (2003), this paper introduces a designing and
investigation of wideband patch antenna which is comprised of two triangular
patches The discussed antenna bandwidth is almost two times large in comparison
of rectangular patch(ordinary) of the same size. Results depicted in this paper,
shows good radiation patterns which is derived with the cross-polarization level
of -14 dB.

Qu et al. [94] (2006), this paper explains the MPA with a high impedance
Electromagnetic Band Gap substrate. The designed structure is almost similar and
equivalent to a microstrip antenna, with the difference that the conducting ground
plane is replaced with high impedance Electromagnetic Band Gap layer. While
designing, firstly the bandgap of the Electromagnetic Band Gap structure is
determined. After-that, patch antennas with Electromagnetic Band Gap ground
plane is designed to operate within the bandgaps as well outside the bandgaps. It
has been observed that wide bandwidths (approx. 25%) can be attained with the
deviation of EBG parameters as well as original antenna. This may lead to
increase in gain of antenna.

H. Boutayeb and T. A. Denidni [19] (2007), This paper depicts the performance
of a Circular MPA which is enhanced by using a new cylindrical EBG substrate.
The MPA is combined with a cylindrical Electromagnetic Band Gap substrate and
fed by a coaxial probe, to increase the gain of the antenna. The cylindrical EBG
structure is an integration of couple of periodic structures with different periods.

37
One structure consists of metallic rings and the another one is of grounding vias,
with this given concept, an antenna is fabricated and results are measured. It has
been observed that the measured reflection coefficient and radiation patterns of
proposed antenna exhibit a proper impedance matching with improved gain.

Q. Rao and T. A. Denidni [93] (2009), the paper investigates a small sized
multiband antenna used for wireless handheld devices. The discussed design
comprises of two folded L-shaped strips which are connected by a short stub and
common excitation is fed to both. It has been observed that the designed antenna
is compared with the other existing multiband antennas designs, and noted that
the designed antenna is simple in structure, smaller in size, and has higher mode
independence.

Q. Luo et al. [92] (2009), this paper reports the simulation and fabrication of a
printed fractal monopole antenna which can be used for WLAN-USB dongle
applications. The discussed antenna is designed with the fusion of meander line
and fractal geometry. The discussed antenna structure is simple in shape and easy
to fabricate. The multiband operation characteristics can be achieved with
proposed antenna. The measured results clearly indicate that the proposed antenna
may be used for WLAN applications as it covers the frequency bands in between
2.22 to 2.52 GHz and 5.03 to 5.84 GHz. It has been also observed from the
simulated results that designed antenna, in the lower frequency band has constant
gain 1.8 dBi with radiation efficiency 95% whereas in the upper band, it exhibits
gain 2.4 dBi with radiation efficiency 94%.

R. Azaro et al. [97] (2009), this letter elaborates the simulation and fabrication of
three-band hybrid fractal antenna which can efficiently use in wireless
applications like GSM and Wi-Fi. The proposed geometry of the hybrid antenna
is a attained by combining the Meander and Sierpinski fractal shapes. Customised
Particle Swarm technique is used to enhance the performance parameters of the
designed antenna. The comparative analysis of measured and simulated results
has been reported in the article, and found reasonable agreement with each other.

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R. Azaro et al. [96] (2009), This letter demonstrates the design of a Monopole quad-
band antenna using Hilbert geometry. The proposed antenna is simulated and
fabricated. The experimental and measured results are discussed in this letter.

C. Liu et al. [27] (2010), this paper analyses a compact monopole antenna which is
designed with slotted ground and exhibits penta-band operations. The proposed
antenna consists of T-slit monopole printed on the upper side of the substrate top
(ungrounded portion). Dimensions of the designed antenna are 47 × 5.4 mm2 and the
dimensions of the slotted ground plane which is incised on the bottom of the
substrate are 47 × 10 mm2. An inverted-L copper strip is also soldered at the one
edge of the monopole for increasing the length of the designed antenna. It exhibits
that the discussed antenna takes up the small space inside the handheld mobile
phones and can efficiently operate as an internal mobile phone antenna. It also has
been observed that the designed antenna can operates at multiple frequency bands
and useful for the wireless applications like GSM (850/900 MHz), DCS, PCS and
UMTS.

N. Singh et al. [85] (2010), the paper defines the design of small sized corner
triangular patch antenna with truncated corners. The proposed antenna is designed
for Wi-MAX bands i.e; (2.5 GHz – 2.55GHz) and (3.4 GHz to 3.7 GHz). Designed
antenna exhibits S11 ≤ -10 dB for the entire frequency band.

A. Mehdipour et al. [15] (2010), this letter depicts the multiband antennas with
single wall carbon nanotube. Sierpinski Fractal composite antenna has been analysed
by Microwave Studio software. Antenna is fabricated using high-precision milling
machine by printing carbon nanotube both sides of the substrate, and further, desired
shape is truncated. To strengthen the carbon nanotube material resin infiltration
technique is used. The proposed antenna illustrates the significant gain and radiation
patterns, and can be used for the applications WLAN, UHF-RFID and Bluetooth.

H. Kumar and N. Singh [50] (2011), this paper demonstrates the 2-port dual
frequency antennas with annular slot resonator. The designed antenna exhibits the

39
maximum reflection coefficient -31.35 dB at 5.2 GHz and also illustrates the
omnidirectional radiation pattern in H-plane. The discussed antenna operates at
WLAN bands and well suited for the domestic networks and oscillator type antenna
applications.

C. Singh and R.P.S. Gangwar [30] (2011), this paper describes the designing of
slotted rectangular MPA. Antenna’s bandwidth has been improved by cutting the slot
into the rectangular patch. The proposed antenna exhibits the three resonant
frequencies with peak gain 7 dBi and useful for the C-band applications.

N. Singh et al. [86] (2011), this paper reports that the performance parameters of
antennas can be improved by using metamaterials or EBG structures.

A. Azari [1] (2011), this paper explains the design of UWB antennas which are used
for military and commercial telecommunication services. The compact size and
multi-band characteristics is an very important aspect to design the UWB antennas.
Fractal geometry can fulfill this requirement as they possess the unique properties
like space-filling and self-similarity, as these properties are very helpful to attain the
required miniaturization and multi-band characteristics.. The discussed antenna
design is in octagonal shaped fractal microstrip patch antenna. The designed antenna
is optimized by using CST Microwave Studio software, and the results exhibit
frequency range between 10 GHz -50 GHz. It has been observed that the designed
antenna is a super wideband microstrip antenna with bandwidth of 40 GHz.

T. Chang and J. Lin [124] (2011), This paper presents that a radome is designed to
improve the boresight (optical axis- directional antenna) gain, flat-gain bandwidth
and reflection coefficient bandwidth of a MPA. The radome comprises of a pair of
parallel strips incised on the bottom of dielectric material. The length and spacing
between each strip is adjusted to tune the -10 dB reflection coefficient bandwidth.

R.K. Kanth et al. [103] (2011), this paper depicts that printed electronic materials
are more environmental friendly in comparison to the PCB electronics. The author

40
contemplate that the printed RFID antenna causes less harmful impact to the
environment.

A. Jamil et al. [8] (2011), this paper premeditates the hybrid fractal antenna which is
designed by integrating the Meander and Koch geometry for WLAN USB dongle
application. Optimization of antenna i.e; to decrease the size of antenna without any
change in the performance parameters of antenna is still a big challenge for the
researchers. But Fractal antenna is quite useful to overcome the aforementioned
challenges as it exhibits the multiband characteristics, reduces the cost as well as size
of antenna. The discussed antenna is simulated by using CST microwave studio
simulator, and the results exhibit the dual bands of bandwidth (2.2909 GHz - 2.553
GHz) and (5.1406 -GHz-5.8737 GHz). It also has been observed that the minimum
S11 is -28.9 dB at the lower frequency band (2.41 GHz) whereas S11 is -20.8 dB at
upper frequency band (5.36 GHz).

H. Oraizi and S. Hedayati [52] (2012), this paper analyses the possibilities,
investigation and properties of the Giuseppe Peano geometry for the miniaturization
of MPA and also compare the performance with fractals like Sierpinski, Tee-Type
and Koch. The surface area of the Giuseppe Peano remains unaltered without
occupying more space, even if the length of the antenna is increased. It has been
observed that the gain and relative frequency bandwidth of antenna has been
improved along with miniaturization. This has been also noticed that with
perturbation in its initial structure, a circular polarization has been achieved at its one
of its resonance frequency.

S. Behera et al. [108] (2012), this paper proposes a multiport network approach to
validate the behaviour of MPA. The Minkowski geometry replaces the side opposite
to the feed arm of microstrip square ring antenna. Dual frequency is attained by
properly taking the indentation of this Minkowski geometry. The resonant
characteristics can be controlled by increasing the width of the sides. This has been
noticed in the paper that the impedance matrix (multiport network model) of
discussed antenna is simplified exploiting self-similarity of the geometry with greater
precision and accuracy with minimum analysis time.

41
R.K. Kanth et al. [102] (2012), this paper explains the design of triangular printed
antenna with truncated tip. The proposed antenna consists of copper as a radiating
patch and glass epoxy as substrate and also analysed by using Method of Moment
technique. The bandwidth, radiation pattern and reflection coefficient are
contempalted in the paper. The designed antenna is best fit for establishing the
communication link between satellites and buoys.

R. A. Kumar and Y. K. Choukiker [95] (2012), The paper depicts a simulated

design of compact sized (30×25mm2) hybrid fractal antenna with microstrip line feed
for UWB applications. The discussed antenna is designed by integrating Sierpinski
Carpet and Giuseppe Peano geometries. It has been investigated in the paper that the
designed antenna demonstrates omnidirectional radiation pattern with acceptable
value of gain.

R. Karli and H. Ammor [101] (2012), this paper depicts the Simulation of multi-
band microstrip antenna which can be used for the wireless applications such as
GSM, , PCS, Cellular phone system, UMTS, WLAN, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, DCS. The
main advantages of proposed antenna are that it is light in weight, economical, and
exhibits multi-band characteristics. The simulated results of designed antenna
show the resonant frequency, reflection coefficient and, radiation patterns in the
acceptable range.

J. W. Jayasinghe and D. Uduwawala [66] (2013), this paper premeditates the

design of multi-frequency broadband patch antenna (Compact size – 32mm2) which
can be used for WLAN applications. The proposed antenna consists of patch, and
shorting pin is incised on a substrate and is hanged in air 5 mm over the ground
plane. Genetic algorithm is applied to optimize the patch dimensions, a feed point
and positions of shorting pin. The proposed antenna exhibits a -10 dB fractional
impedance bandwidth of 12.6%. The designed antenna is best suited for the handheld
devices like mobile phones, electronic wallets etc.

J. S. Sivia et al. [64] (2013), this paper demonstrates a design of Circular Fractal
antenna using ANN technique. Designed antenna is optimised using IE3D software

42
up to 2nd iteration. Discussed antenna is fabricated, and experimental results are
found in accordance with the simulated results.

W. Ahmad and H.Kumar [132] (2013), this paper premeditates the small sized
UWB antenna for wireless applications. The designed antenna exhibits the input
impedance 348.1 Ω, and highly matched antenna makes it best suitable for the
communication applications.

V. V. Reddy and N. V. S. N. Sarna [130] (2013), this paper demonstrates a design

of microstrip antenna with single layer single and single probe feed for tri-band
circular polarization operation. Various structures without-slot, rectangular, fractal
and optimised fractal slot are discussed for multiband Circular Polarization radiation.
To attain the tri-band Circular Polarization radiation some variation has been made in
the structure and also Koch curve has been used at boundaries of rectangular slot and
square patch. 3dB axial ratio bandwidths of optimized fractal slot are 3.2%, 1.6%,
and 3.0% at resonating frequencies 2.45 GHz, 3.4 GHz, and 5.8 GHz respectively.
Author also demonstrated that the simulation results are in genuine agreement with
the measured results and designed antenna may be used for WLAN and Wi-MAX
applications.

V. V. Reddy and N. V. S. N. Sarna [131] (2014), this paper explains the small sized
Microstrip antenna with fractal boundary for circular polarization. In this design, the
square sides are being replaced by asymmetrical prefractal curves, to excite two
orthogonal modes for Circular Polarization operation. The designed structure of
antenna is asymmetrical in shape along the principal axes (x, y). The compact
circular polarized antenna has designed with the optimization of indentation
parameters. The measured results for the Ant-2 (Antenna-2) exhibits 3 dB axial-ratio,
-10-dB reflection coefficient and bandwidths 162MHz and 50 MHz, at resonating
frequency 2540 MHz. The observed results depict that a magnificent Circular
Polarisation is attained with a single probe feed, and the antenna’s size is get
decreased by using the concept of fractal boundaries.

Y. K. Choukiker et al. [137] (2014), this paper proposes a hybrid fractal shape
planar monopole antenna which operates at different frequencies and useful for

43
wireless communication specially for Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO). The
discussed hybrid structure is the integration of Minkowski and Koch curve with edge
to edge separation of at 1.75 GHz. To improve the isolation and impedance
matching of antenna, T-shaped strip is inserted into the structure and rectangular slot
is incised towards upper side of the ground plane. The measured impedance
matching fractional bandwidths have been observed that it is 14% for band 1 (1.65
GHz to 1.9 GHz) and 80% for band 2 (2.68 GHz to 6.25 GHz). An acceptable
agreement has been observed between the measured and simulated results, and the
presented antenna can be used for handheld mobile devices.

A. Kumar et al. [10] (2014), this letter premeditates the frequency reconfigurable
antenna with moving feeding technique. Sierpinski monopole gasket is connected
with microstrip line feed which is also attached with flexible coaxial feed. The
connected feed line slides with the help of Computer controlled mechanism. While
sliding the feed line with the help of computer controlled mechanism, the various
operational frequencies are observed. The observed frequencies are single and
multiple. The feasibility of the discussed concept has been implemented and verified
experimentally with the help of designed frequency reconfigurable antenna.

K. Gangwar et al. [68] (2015), this paper illustrates the design of rectangular MPA
using Metamaterial structure (MTM) at 2.54 GHz. The performance parameters like
bandwidth, gain and reflection coefficient have been improved by using MTM. The
improved reflection coefficient also enhances the directivity of the proposed antenna.

A. Amini et al. [2] (2015), this letter anticipates the design of log-periodic square
fractal antenna for Ultra Wide Band applications. In the desired band, the proposed
antenna indicates the results i.e; constant and stable gain along with miniaturization
(almost 24%). The attain radiation pattern is also towards broadside, which is quite
suitable for the medical imaging and UWB radars applications. Designed antenna is
also fabricated and experimental results are discussed in the paper which shows a
reasonable agreement between measured and simulated results.

44
S. Singh and Y. Kumar [117] (2015), this paper describes a design of compact size
Multiband hybrid fractal antenna. The discussed hybrid antenna structure has been
attained by combining Koch and Minkowski curve together. Proposed antenna shows
multiband characteristics, acceptable reflection coefficient and VSWR, good value of
gain and compact size. Discussed antenna is simulated upto 2nd iteration by using
scripting method of HFSS using MATLAB,. The simulated antenna resonates at
seven frequency bands and covers the wireless applications such as GPS, Bluetooth,
ISM band, WLAN, aeronautical navigation and Mobile/fixed satellite.

N. Abdullah et al. [82] (2015), This paper premeditates the design of Minkowski
fractal antenna for dual band applications which is compact in size and exhibits the
multiband characteristics, and practically useful in wireless communication. The
proposed antenna is mathematically analyzed, simulated over Microwave Office
software and fabricated. The parameters like reflection coefficient, VSWR,
bandwidth, radiation pattern and beamwidth are visualized for simulated and
fabricated antenna and also found the agreement with each other. The reference
frequencies used to design the antenna are GPS (1.5 GHz) and GSM (1800 MHz).

M. T. Isalam et al. [81] (2015), this paper describes the compact microstrip antenna
with coaxial-probe-fed, high-gain and circularly polarized Microstrip antenna is a
best choice of the researchers for this application because it is light in weight and low
profile antenna. Proposed antenna is optimised for HORYU-IV nano satellite whose
main task is to gather data in regard to high-voltage discharge phenomena in LEO.
The discussed antenna comprises of four V-shaped (asymmetrical) slits,
Asymmetrical slits are joined at all the four corners of a rectangular patch, and
parasitic rectangular strip. It has been understood from the paper that discussed
antenna attains an appropriate bandwidth for LEO satellites.

Y. Kumar and S. Singh [135] (2015), this paper explains Hybrid fractal antenna
which is designed by combining the Koch curve and Meander geometry. The
characteristics of proposed antenna are studied and investigated. The designed
antenna exhibits multiple resonance characteristics because of its multiband
behavior. An Iterative Function System method has been implemented to attain the

45
hybrid compact sized antenna using MATLAB and HFSS. Discussed antenna
resonates at four frequencies i.e; Bluetooth (2.12-2.95 GHz), 4.07 GHz, WLAN
(4.82-5.95 GHz) and 7.3 GHz, and can be used for wireless applications.

S. Dhar et al. [109] (2015), this paper anticipated the multiband fractal antenna with
CPW-fed slot. The CPW- fed slot is burdened with dielectric resonator. The
Minkowski geometry is used to achieve the multiband and to exhibit a miniaturized
design. Dielectric load is used to improve the impedance bandwidth at the upper
frequency band and the overall gain. The slot loop used in this paper acts as an
antenna and feed mechanism both. Design guidelines which include closed form
formulae and equivalent model comprising of distributed resonators, lumped
resonators and impedance transformers of the fractal slot antenna(dielectric loaded)
is shown to exhibit an insight into the antenna related to its functioning. The closed
match has been observed between the reflection coefficient and the circuit model
which is obtained from simulator. The antenna resonates at seven frequency bands,
and the maximum gain observed is 3.1 dB.

D. Mitra et al. [36] (2015), This paper illustrates the design of ring slot antenna
with interdigitated slits. It has been observed in this paper that with the use of
interdigitated slits inside the ring, the fundamental resonant frequency has been
significantly reduced up to 54.47%., which causes the antenna to almost reach to the
electrically small limit. Further, low impedance metamaterials slab has used with the
electrically small antenna to significantly enhance the antenna characteristics, which
may lead to the reduction in superstrate height. With this low profile substrate, the
efficiency and the directivity of the electrically small antenna are significantly
enhanced.

M. K. Khandewal et al. [73] (2015), This paper anticipated the Dual band
Microstrip Patch Antenna with line feed. Ground plane is embedded with a rotated
rectangular shaped defect and open ended Microstrip-Line feed of 50 Ω. Dual bands
and gain of 8.1 dB with good radiation characteristics have been attained. Proposed
antenna is useful for the Wi-MAX, and exhibits omnidirectional radiation pattern.
Equivalent circuit model has been demonstrated for the analysis of antenna. The 40%
miniaturization has been achieved by cutting all the corners of the rectangular defect

46
and inserting defected square ring in it. It also has been observed that simulated
results are in average agreement with experimental results.

A. Singh and S. Singh [17] (2015), this paper describes a monopole antenna with
defective ground plane and useful for wireless communication. The designed antenna
illustrates the reflection coefficient i.e; S11 ≤ −10dB of 3.18GHz whereas the peak
gain is 4.5dB throughout the entire frequency band. Further, defective ground plane
is used to improve the impedance bandwidth and gain of antenna. The measured
bandwidth observed for the antenna is 2.44–2.58GHz and 3.5–8.85GHz which is
quite useful in WLAN, Wi-MAX and point to point high speed wireless applications
the agreement average between the simulated and measured results has been
observed.

C. Wang et al. [26] (2015), the paper proposes an open-slot antenna with
microstrip-fed and exhibits dual-band circular polarization. Proposed antenna
consists of a T-shaped open slot, parasitical rectangular patch, bent feeding structure
and two inverted L-slots for radiating right-hand circularly polarized wave at
frequency 1.57 GHz whereas left-hand circularly polarized wave at frequency 2.33
GHz. Parasitical rectangular patch which is added on the top of the substrate will
help to enhance the impedance bandwidth at the low-frequency band. The measured
impedance bandwidth of S11 ≤ -10 dB ranges from 1.45 GHz to 3.93 GHz, and will
cover wireless applications like DCS/PCS, GPS, WLAN, WiMAX, IMT-2000 and
LTE.

D. Yu et al. [40] (2015), this paper depicts the designing of Conical-beam circularly
polarized microstrip antenna. The proposed antenna comprises of a center-fed patch
with elliptical-ring slot containing eight shorting vias. θ-polarization and φ-
polarization is with shorting vias and coaxial probe, and modified elliptical-ring slots
respectively. The amplitudes of both the polarizations can be managed separately.
The designed antenna depicts wide impedance bandwidth because of the
employment of odd and even modes of the elliptical ring slot. Discussed antenna is
fabricated and it is seated on three ground planes with radii λ0, 2λ0, and 10λ0. The
experimental results indicate the10-dB impedance bandwidths of 19.4%, 19.5%, and

47
19.9%, and the simultaneously 3-dB axial ratio bandwidths of 25.3%, 25.6%, and
24.8%.

J. P. Jacobs [61] (2015), this paper investigates the Gaussian Process Regression
(GPR) methodology for precisely modeling the antenna. Two types of antennas i.e.;
U-slot patch and center square slot on patch are being discussed. The results clearly
exhibit that Gaussian Process Regression is better approach in comparison to neural
networks; even small training data is used. It also has been observed that GPR
approach illustrates high accuracy in results and, normalized rms error is below 0.6%
in all the discussed cases. GPR also has the automatic relevance determination
property without any extra cost, which is quite useful for antenna resonance
characteristics; such facility is not available in the neural networks.

H. Malekpoor and S. Jam [51] (2015), this paper demonstrates the bandwidth
enhancement analysis of microstrip patch antennas with probe feed. The proposed
antenna consists of a patch with U-shaped-slot, a folded-patch feed, E-shaped
(symmetric) edge, and shorting pins. The experimentally measured impedance-
bandwidth of the discussed antenna is about 92%, and the frequency range (3.94
GHz -10.65 GHz). To enhance the bandwidth of the compact wideband antenna,
basic-antenna model (equivalent transmission line) is introduced. If U-shaped slot is
being replaced with the V-shaped slot on the patch, then performance of antenna is
also improved and exhibit 4 GHz to 14.4 GHz (frequency range). This optimised
antenna design is simple in structure, rather size of the antenna is also get reduced
and impedance bandwidth is also improved by 21% in comparison to the basic
antenna.

M. A. Rahman et al. [72] (2015), this paper explains the switching techniques used
for Notched ultra-wideband antenna. The switched defected microstrip structure
band stop filter is used in the microstrip feed line along with a switched meandered
slot incised in the patch to attain the band-notched frequencies. The reconfiguration
of the switching is done by integrating the two switches for the response of notch
filter which is required to avoid the interference occurred in the middle and upper
Wi-MAX WLAN bands for the primary users. The discussed structure operates in
four modes by controlling the positions (on/off) of two switches. The designed

48
antenna exhibits good matched impedance from 2.5 GHz to 12 GHz with two
notched bands from 3.3 GHz to 3.8 GHz (middle Wi-MAX) and from 5.1 GHz to 5.9
GHz (upper Wi-MAX). The good agreement has been noticed between the
experimental and simulated results of proposed antenna.

M. R. I. Faruque et al. [76] (2015), the paper explains the design of MPA used for
cellular applications. The proposed design consists of slots and Flame Retardant 4-
dielectric substrate which is fed by a microstrip line along with partial ground plane.
The SAR value of the designed antenna is assessed for different frequency bands.
The designed antenna exhibits impedance bandwidth of 230.4 MHz and 522.24
MHz which is useful in GSM 900 MHz and 1900 MHz, digital communication and
UMTS. Designed antenna is also compared with dipole/ helical/ planar inverted-F
antenna on the basis of SAR and found that proposed antenna possess low SAR
value in the human head.

J. M. Jeevani et al. [60] (2015), This paper describes the design of Planer inverted F
antenna which is compact in size (Foot print 32mm2). Proposed antenna is optimized
using Genetic Algorithms, and covers various UNII bands. The patch with a shorting
pin is incised on a substrate, and is hanged in the air 5mm over the ground plane. The
shorting pin position, feed position and patch geometry is being optimised using
Genetic Algorithm Optimization technique to attain triple-frequency band. Proposed
antenna exhibits fractional impedance bandwidth -10 dB fractional impedance
bandwidth of 12.6 % and is best suited for handheld devices like electronic wallets,
laptops, mobile phones etc.

S. Singh and A. Singh [118] (2015), this article investigates the optimization of
modified Sierpinski fractal antenna using Particle Swarm Optimisation and curve
fitting techniques. The main aim of this article to convert the simple dual band
antenna to broadband antenna by using above mentioned techniques. The proposed
antenna can be used for the Wi-MAX, WLAN, Public safety band and point-to-point
high speed communication.

J. Jayasinghe et al. [59] (2015), This letter demonstrates the high-directivity

Microstrip patch by substituting 2 x 2 array which uses Genetic Algorithm with patch

49
size of 1λ ×1λ along the broadside direction and measured directivity 13.2 dBi. In
this letter, the proposed design is fabricated, and experimental results are compared
with simulated results, and found an agreement with each other.

S. Singh and A. Singh [119] (2015), this paper explains the modified Sierpinski
fractal antenna using compact high frequency coaxial probe feed. The designed
antenna shows the broadband behavior in frequency bands 12.2 – 13,4 GHz and 21 –
30 GHz. The experimental gain varies in between 8 to 22 dB. The implemented
antenna is useful for the satellite receiver, mounted earth station, mobile space
research activity, passive sensors and active sensors.

M. Kaur et al. [74] (2016), this paper anticipates the design of Plus Slotted Fractal
Antenna Array by combining the fractal antenna and antenna array. Proposed
antenna operates at 2.5 GHz and designed upto 2nd iteration. The designed antenna
array operates at five different frequencies and exhibits maximum gain 10.26 dB at
6.9 GHz. The designed antenna depicts multiband characteristics and can be used for
S, X and C band applications.

R. K. Pandey and T. Shanmuganantham [100] (2016], the aim of the paper is to

propose a wideband compact sized slotted MPA with enhanced bandwidth using
coaxially fed. The proposed antenna exhibits increased -10 dB impedance
bandwidths of 500 MHz, 400 MHz and 550 MHz, and practically used for WLAN
and WiMAX applications. To improve the bandwidths, some slots and slits are
inserted in the radiating patch and ground plane. The results of the antenna exhibit
S11 - 10dB for entire operating range.

W. Farooq et al. [133] (2016), this paper explains the design of Ring shaped antenna
(Conventional microstrip). The proposed antenna radiates at 5 GHz, and simulated
using CST Microwave Studio. The simulated results exhibit that the designed
antenna has a -10 dB bandwidth of 90.3 MHz with peak gain of 6.9 dBi. The antenna
performance parameters like Bandwidth, gain, radiation characteristics and reflection
coefficient are in acceptable range. The proposed antenna is used for the wireless
sensor applications because of its compact size and acceptable range of performance
parameters.

50
Y. P. Saputra [136] (2016), this paper explains the designing of microstrip patch
antenna with slots which are utilized for altering polarization of X-band. The
alternation of polarization is done without changing the feed line and parameters of
other polarization technique. The linear vertical polarization of antenna is altered into
the perpendicular polarization by inserting a slot over the patch antenna. The
dimensions of the designed antenna are 20.2 × 20.2 mm2 and the dimension of the
slot used to alter the polarization is 0.65 × 5.1 mm2. To exhibit the capability of
proposed antenna in altering polarization, a comparison has been done with
conventional X-band microstrip patch antenna with the same physical parameters.

X. Liu et al. [134] (2016], this paper projects the design of triple-band microstrip
antenna. The proposed antenna structure is quite simple. Designed antenna exhibits
three different operating frequency bands i.e; 0.9GHz, 1.8GHz and 2.4GHz) and is
built on a single 1/8th circle ring sector radiating patch, the slots and vias are
properly embedded on the patch area.

S. Mishra et al. [113] (2016), this paper investigates the design and analysis of
Microstrip patch antenna which consists of T and U shaped slots along with
truncated rectangular corner. The proposed antenna resonants at 3.105 GHz, and
covers the S- band applications. The main aim of the paper is to enhance the
reflection coefficient by making changes in the slots (cut or made) inserted on the
patch as well as improve the bandwidth by increasing the height between the
substrate and ground plane. The designed antenna is simulated using IE3D software,
and shows maximum reflection coefficient -42.57 at resonant frequency 3.105 GHz
and bandwidth enhancement upto 21%.

H. Barapatre et al. [48] (2016), this paper describes the design of Circular
Microstrip patch antenna which operates at 2.4 GHz and 7.1GHz. The results of the
proposed design exhibits reflection coefficient, efficiency, gain and bandwidth
(almost 6 GHz) are in acceptable range. The maximum reflection coefficient is -
19.94 dB at frequency 2.4 GHz.

Ankita et al. [16] (2016), this paper explains the Microstrip Antenna with two
stacked patches along with wide ground slot to enhance the performance parameters.

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 The proposed antenna exhibits six resonant frequencies with peak gain 5.11 dB.
Designed antenna is useful for wireless communications like Wi-MAX, Bluetooth,
Wibro, DCS, Satellite and C-band.

S. S. Bhatia and J. S. Sivia [114], this paper premeditates the design of compact
sized 4900 mm2 circular monopole antenna which exhibits seven frequency bands.
The discussed antenna comprises of partial ground plane and a triangular notch is
also introduced in the ground plane to improve the impedance matching. The
proposed antenna can be used for WLAN, Wi-MAX, X-band and Ku-band
applications.

2.2 RESEARCH MOTIVATION

In this technological era, wireless communication has gained huge popularity. People
even can’t think to live without the electronic gadgets specially based on the wireless
technology. The most commonly used wireless applications are cellular phones
(GSM and UMTS), Satellite, GPS, Radio frequency identification (RFID), Wi-MAX,
Wi-Fi, WLAN, RADAR, Rectenna (converts microwave energy directly into DC
power), Telemedicine (Wearable microstrip antenna used for wireless body area
networks), Medicinal (microwave energy used to treat malignant tumor), Multilevel
advance antennas for motor vehicles etc. [53] [102]. These discussed wireless
applications are of no use without proper designing of antenna. So, antenna is the hot
cake of the market which attracts researchers to carry the research to design a
compact sized, low profile, economical and wide bandwidth optimized antenna. The
conventional antennas are not capable to satisfy these needs, only the microstrip
patch and fractal antenna fulfill these aforementioned requirements. In this thesis
work, various existing shapes of Microstrip and fractal antennas are discussed and
antenna parameters are optimized to meet the market needs.

2.3 CHALLENGES AND PROBLEM FORMULATION

In the referred literature survey, it has been observed that most of the antenna
designed by distinguished researchers are either bulky, space consuming or large in
size and even performance parameters are compromised. Antenna size is kept large
for the lower frequency spectrum to meet the requirement of the application. These

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 problems are not always overcome by using the compact sized Microstrip patch and
fractal antennas, and also leave the challenges for the antenna designers which may
evolve with the following reasons:

 Different tissue properties of individual persons and even change in this properties,
from time to time also has direct impact on the antenna performance.
 Need of compact sized antenna for modern wireless communication small sized
equipments.
 Unwanted radiations also affect the bandwidth of antenna.
 Reduced ground plane size can rise the issues:
 Forward directivity may decreased with backward radiations
 Increase in resonant frequency
It also has been contemplated from the discussed literature survey that most vital
performance factor of the antenna is reflection coefficient, and impedance matching
which should matched over the resonating frequency range. In past research, it also
have been noticed that compact sized antenna may be designed to exhibit the
multiband/wideband characteristics, apart from this the following problems have also
been reported:
 Few of the researchers have focussed on the directivity only at the cost of other
antenna performance parameters.
 Even Bandwidth of the various discussed design is low, which is not applicable for
the efficient use of antenna in practical applications.
 Much attention is not given to the impedance matching by some of the researchers; it
is a very important parameter responsible for the reduction in power losses which
occurred in antenna.
Fractal geometries drastically reduce the size of antenna and also exhibit the desired
characteristics. Though, different fractal geometries have been introduced by various
researchers in antenna designing, but somehow antenna performance parameters are
being compromised. In this thesis work, the various fractal and Microstrip patch
antenna shapes like circular Sierpinski carpet, Giuseppe Peano, modified Sierpinski
carpet, hexagonal Meander fractal and rectangular microstrip patch are simulated and

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 fabricated, to improve the performance parameters. If we visualize, the discussed
references [10], [54], [82], [92], [93], [97], [107], [109], [130], [131] and [137], the
antenna size is large and the number of resonant frequencies are less than 5 and gain
is low. To overcome this, a hybrid fractal antenna is proposed by integrating the
Sierpinski Carpet and Minkowski fractal shapes A Microstrip patch antenna with
hybrid fractal slots (Koch-Koch and Koch-Minkowski) with defected ground plane is
also proposed in this thesis to improve the performance parameters of antenna.

2.4 OBJECTIVES
1. Evaluating the performance parameters of Microstrip Patch antenna with Minkowski
geometry and also analysing performance parameters in existing designs like
Sierpinski Carpet, Giuseppe Peano and Meander
2. To propose a novel hybrid design of Fractal Antenna using Line Feed Techniques
which can operate at Multi-resonant frequencies.
3. To propose a novel design of Microstrip patch antenna with hybrid fractal slot
(Koch-Koch and Koch-Minkowski) using defected ground plane to exhibit the
wideband characteristics.
4. Improvement in the performance parameters of proposed antenna designs such as:
 Reflection Coefficient
 Bandwidth
 Radiation Pattern
 Gain
 VSWR
5. To make comparison of the proposed designs with the existing designs for getting
optimised design parameters.

2.5 CONCLUDING REMARKS

In this chapter, the research work carried out by the distinguished researchers has
been studied, presented and analyzed. Based on referred study, the challenges for
antenna designing have been marked. These given challenges also lead to a problem
formulation which is explained in the chapter. Based on the problem formulation the
objectives of the thesis have been defined in the chapter.

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