Miniaturized Quarter-Mode Substrate Integrated

Waveguide (QMSIW) Antenna using Sierpinski

Fractal Geometry
Suvadeep Choudhury 1, Akhilesh Mohan 2
Department of Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Kharagpur, West Bengal, INDIA
1
suvadeepchoudhury@gmail.com
2
am@ece.iitkgp.ernet.in
Abstract- A planar Sierpinski fractal on a Quarter Mode
Substrate Integrated Waveguide (QMSIW) antenna is proposed
in this paper. The designed antenna has an overall dimension of
35 × 40 mm2. The QMSIW is obtained by bisecting the Half
Mode Substrate Integrated Waveguide (HMSIW) along the
fictitious quasi-magnetic wall while maintaining similar
performance characteristics. Two stages of Sierpinski fractals
have been introduced and their effects in the frequency reduction
have been investigated. Fractal structures increase the effective
current path leading to miniaturization of antennas. Rectangular
slots have been cut on the ground plane to perturb the electric
field for further miniaturization. The QMSIW antenna with
second stage of Sierpinski fractal has been designed, fabricated
and measured. The measured and simulated results match closely. Figure 1. Structure of the proposed QMSIW antenna
I. INTRODUCTION
Various fractal geometries like the Koch, snowflake,
Rapid development in the field of modern wireless Pythagorean tree and the Sierpinski gasket possessing self
communication systems has drawn special attention of repeatability property have been implemented for multiband
researchers to design high performance compact antennas, operation and miniaturization of antennas [7-10]. Fractals,
which can be fabricated at lower cost. Microstrip antennas are being a recursive structure, increase the effective electrical
low profile, light weighted and are economical to be used for path length and thus lead to miniaturization due to its space
this purpose. However, with the advancement in the filling properties [11].
technology, miniaturization has become a prime concern In this paper, a compact SIW antenna is proposed by
among the antenna designers. An increase in the effective loading the Sierpinski fractal on a QMSIW antenna. When the
permittivity and permeability of the antenna structure [1], fractal is loaded on the QMSIW, its resonant frequency
composite left/right handed ladder structures [2], Split Ring becomes lower than the waveguide cut-off frequency, thus
Resonator and Complementary Split Ring Resonators are achieving miniaturization. With the introduction of fractal
reported in order to effectively design the compact, low profile geometry, the effective current path increases, which is more
antennas. prominent for the first mode. Hence the miniaturization in the
In the last decade, Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) first mode is substantially more compared to the other higher
have been proposed and explored by K. Wu et al. [3] to design order modes. Moreover for the proposed QMSIW antenna, the
some high performance microwave and mm-wave circuits. open sides are effectively replaced by magnetic wall. Thus the
The SIW reduced the bulkiness of the conventional waveguide antenna operates effectively in the first mode, TE101, while
without compromising on its performance. The SIW can be suppressing other higher order modes. In spite of the
bisected along a fictitious quasi-magnetic wall and it becomes miniaturization, the radiation performance and efficiency
a half-mode substrate integrated waveguide (HMSIW) as remains nearly constant. The QMSIW antenna with Sierpinski
presented in [4] and [5]. Moving one step further, C. Jin et al fractal geometry has been investigated in terms of its dominant
investigated the properties of a quarter-mode substrate frequency characteristics. The proposed antenna has been
integrated waveguide (QMSIW) antenna [6]. It can be fabricated and tested to validate the results obtained from
obtained by further bisecting HMSIW along the fictitious simulation. Reflection coefficient and radiation characteristics
quasi-magnetic wall while maintaining almost similar field are also measured. Radiation characteristics show that for
configuration. TE101 mode, the antenna is linearly polarized.
 II. ANTENNA DESIGN

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 2. Iteration-wise evolution of the proposed antenna
(a) 0th Iteration (b) 1st Iteration and (c) 2nd Iteration

The iteration wise evolution of the proposed QMSIW

antenna has been shown in Figure 2. Figure 2 (a) shows a
basic QMSIW antenna, which is one quadrant of SIW.
Subsequently, two stages of Sierpinski structures have been
generated by Iterated Function System (IFS) as shown in
Figure 2 (b) and (c) (here-on referred to as 1st and 2nd
Iterations, respectively) and their effects on the dominant
frequency characteristics of the antenna have been
investigated. The fractal structures have been incorporated to
increase the effective length of the current path without
increasing the physical size of the antenna.
The resonant frequency of TEm0p (m = p) of the basic
QMSIW antenna can be estimated as follows [6],
1  mπ   pπ 
2 2
Figure 3. Simulated frequency response for 0th, 1st and 2nd Iterations and mode
analysis
The simulated S11 frequency responses for the three
iterations are shown in Fig 3. From the results it is observed
that with increase in iteration number, the frequency for each
mode has decreased, whereas there is slightly any change in
bandwidth. Also with increasing iteration number, the higher
order modes, TE202 and TE303 get suppressed.
The resonant frequencies for the 0th Iteration shown in Table
II matches closely to that as given in Table I. A reduction in

f   QMSIW     frequency for the first three modes is observed from the
2π με  2Le
QMSIW 
QMSIW
(1)
  2We 
m0p
calculated values (Table I) to that of the simulated results
where m = p = 1,2,… are the mode numbers for the (Table II). This is because of the fact that ideally while
calculating the resonant frequencies, the dielectric was
propagating structure, LQMSIW and WeQMSIW are the effective
e
assumed to be lossless but while in simulation, a loss tangent
length and width of the QMSIW structure and are estimated of 0.02 has been taken, as the fabricated antenna has the same
from [6]. loss tangent. Also, the magnetic walls are not ideal due to
The resonant frequencies of a basic QMSIW antenna for the fringing fields which is assumed to be ideal in calculations.
first three modes with h = 1.6 mm and εr = 4.4 calculated The input impedances at resonant frequencies are
numerically, are listed in Table I. investigated in terms of their real and imaginary parts as
TABLE I shown in Table III. In TE101 mode, the resistive part is around
RESONANT FREQUENCIES FOR A QMSIW 50 ohms while the reactive part is near zero suggesting a good
m=p 1 2 3 impedance match.
Frequency (GHz) 4.037 8.075 12.113
TABLE II
RESONANT FREQUENCIES FOR A QMSIW WITH FRACTAL STRUCTURES
Mode 1 Mode 2 Mode 3
Iteration f0 BW f0 BW f0 BW
(GHz) (GHz) (GHz) (GHz) (GHz) (GHz)
0 3.71 0.10 8.708 0.2426 11.732 0.70
1 3.388 0.084 - - 11.718 0.502
2 3.318 0.081 - - 11.144 0.45
TABLE III
SIMULATED INPUT IMPEDANCES- REAL AND IMAGINARY PARTS
Operating Impedance
Iteration Frequency (a) (b)
Resistance (Ω) Reactance(Ω) Fig 4. Simulated magnitude of surface current distributions in (a) TE101 (3.318
(GHz)
0 3.71 41.75 3.15 GHz) and (b) TE303 (11.144 GHz) modes
1 3.388 37.84 4.95
2 3.318 40.07 4.38
 (a) (b)
V/m
(MAX)4055
4055 Figure 6. Fabricated prototype
3421
2914
2408
1901
1394
887
380
(MIN
MIN)0

(c)
Figure 5. Simulated magnitude of total E- field distributions at their dominant
resonant frequencies in (a) TE101, (b) TE202 and (c) TE303 modes

For each iteration, the current remains confined to a

particular sub-structure
structure of the fractal which contributes to tthe
overall radiation pattern. As the frequency is increased, this
region reduces and thus the current does not reach the top of Figure 7. Simulated and measured reflection coefficients of the proposed
QMSIW antenna
the antenna and hence the antenna effectively radiates in first
mode [12]. This is evident from the surface current
distributions for TE101 and TE303 modes of 2nd Iteration as
shown in Figure 4. Moreover, for the first symmetric mode,
TE202, the E-field
field should be minimum at center (i.e. an
equivalent electric wall). On the contrary, for QMSIW, it is
being replaced by a magnetic wall. l. Thus, the structure
suppresses the symmetric mode.
The electric field distributions for the first three modes of
QMSIW with fractal incorporated (2nd Iteration) are shown in Figure 8. Resultant Electric field for TE101 mode
Figure 5. As the structure is one- quarter of the SIW resonator,
so only a quarter of the fields in X and Y axes can be observed. The cross-polarization
polarization level is around 10dB down from co-co
For a QMSIW, the field radiates for its two open edges as is polarization in both the xz- and yz-yz planes suggesting that the
evident from the E-field distribution. antenna
tenna is linearly polarized in TE101 mode.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSION The realized peak gain and radiation efficiency are slightly
affected with the increase in iteration number of fractals as
In order to experimentally demonstrate the performance of shown in Table IV. The peak gain of 1.72 dBi is obtained at
the proposed antenna, it is fabricated on FR4 with the operating frequency of 3.318 GHz G for 2nd Iteration which
substrate thickness h = 1.6 mm, εr = 4.4 and tan δ = 0.02. The increases to 3.3 dBi at 11.144 GHz, which is the higher order
photograph of the fabricated prototype is shown in Figure 6. asymmetric mode, TE303. In Table V, the proposed antenna is
The antenna is fed by a 50 Ω coaxial SMA connector and its compared with other reported antennas. The proposed antenna
performance is measured in E5071C ENA Series Network is more compact compared to the other antennas. The gain
Analyser. In Figure 7, the measured S-parameter
parameter results are however is lower as lossy FR4 substrate is used for fabrication.
compared with the simulation results and they are in good
agreement. The measured resonant frequency ffor the first
mode is 3.45 GHz which matches closely to the simulation
result and a miniaturization of nearly 11% is achieved by
incorporation of fractal structure to QMSIW. As maxima of
electric field occurs along the AB and AC sides of the radiator,
so thee resultant electric field is inclined at an angle with the
yz axis as shown in Figure 8. Figure 9 gives the measured
(a) (b)
radiation patterns Eθ in the two planes (xz and yz planes) for
Figure 9. Measured co-polarization
polarization and cross-polarization
cross patterns of the
the first mode at 3.45 GHz. proposed QMSIW antenna in (a) xz-xz and (b) yz- planes at Φ=45º
 TABLE IV
REALIZED GAIN AND RADIATION EFFICIENCIES OF TE101 MODE OF QMSIW
ANTENNA FOR VARIOUS ITERATIONS
Operating
Realized Peak Radiation
Iteration Frequency
Gain (dBi) Efficiency (%)
(GHz)
0 3.71 2.1 51.2
1 3.388 1.81 46.8
2 3.318 1.72 45.3
TABLE V
COMPARATIVE RESULTS OF PROPOSED ANTENNA AND REFERENCE ANTENNAS
Parameter This Work [6] [13] Figure 11. Reflection coefficient with frequency for slots along AB and AC
Resonant frequency (GHz) 3.318 5.2 7.75 on the ground plane
Antenna area ( 20 ) 0.22×0.16 0.34×0.25 0.30×0.34 V. CONCLUSION
10dB-BW (%) 2.4 3.5 2.25
Realized Gain (dBi) 1.58 4.12 4.31
In the present work, the frequency miniaturization of
QMSIW antenna has been achieved by incorporating stages of
Sierpinski fractal geometries. Antenna miniaturization
mini of
IV. QMSIW ANTENNA WITH SIERPINSKI FRACTAL AND SLOT nearly 11% is achieved by incorporation of fractal structure to
IN GROUND PLANE QMSIW. The proposed QMSIW antenna has been fabricated
As can been seen from Figure 5 (a), electric field maxima and the S- parameter and radiation pattern have been measured.
occurs at the two side walls. By cutting the slots on the ground The simulated and experimental results match closely in terms
term
plane along the E-field
field maxima, the fields are perturbed. of operating frequency as well as radiation pattern. Peak gain
Hence a further reduction in operating frequency can be of 1.72 dBi has been obtained at 3.318 GHz. Further
observed. Two rectangular slots have been cut, one after the miniaturization is proposed by cutting slots on the ground
other, on the ground plane of sides AB and AC respectively as plane in the direction of Electric field maxima. This design is
shown in Figure 10. Figure 11 shows the reflection coefficient desirable for Wireless
reless Metropolitan Area Network (W-MAN)
(W
for the cuts along AB and AC showing a reduction in the IEEE 802.16 which requires compact planar antennas.
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Figure 10. Slots on the ground plane (a) Along AB, (b) Along AC