2011 Cross Strait Quad-Regional Radio Science and Wireless Technology Conference

Investigations on the K-Sierinski Caret Fractal

Antenna
Yin-kun Wang
Dept of Mathematics and System Science,
College of Science, NUDT,
Changsha, China,
yinkun5522@163.com
Abstract-Sierpinski fractal antennas have been shown to possess
highly desirable properties, including the compact size. A general
Sierpinski carpet, called the K-Sierpinski carpet, is proposed in this
paper. The lowest resonant frequencies and the size reductions of the
K-Sierpinski Carpet fractal antennas are studied based on Ansof
HFSS simulations. It is found that the size reductions of the
K-Sierpinski carpet fractal antennas are almost determined by K
-value and have a little relationship with the size of the antennas.
Keywords-Sierpinski carpet, fractal, compact size.
I. INTRODUCTION
Lots of efforts have been made on the fractal antennas based
on the Sierpinski factal in recent years. For the self-similarity
properties of factal antenna shapes, Sierpinski factal antennas,
including Sierpinski gasket and Sierpinski carpet, have been
experimentally found to perform better multiband, broadband and
miniaturization. C. Puente et al have done a good job in the
analysis of the multiband behavior on the Sierpinski factal
antennas and some variations of Sierpinski gasket antennas '
'
-6

A
tri-band printed antenna based on a Sierpinski gasket has been
proposed in [7] and it has a close radiation patter and a
remarkably low cross-polar level. D. Das Krishna et al have
proposed a compact dual band microstrip patch antenna with
modifed Sierpinski gasket based on slots ', which exhibits a size
reduction of 77% at the lower resonance. A Sierpinski carpet
pre-factal planar monopole antenna with coplanar waveguide
feed has been reported to obtain wide impedance bandwidth of
73% that extends fom 4.90Hz to 10.50Hz in [9]. The compact
Sierpinski antennas have been proposed for IEEE 802. I I a
WLAN applications '
'
`

and UHF RFID applications '

''

What' s
more, the Sierpinski carpet antennas combining with other
structures have been studied to reduce the antenna size '
'
2-
'
4

And
the measurement results showing a maximum 77.l% size
reduction was achieved, without degrading the antenna
performances in [14]. It was a great job in miniaturization.
However there is relatively less work on the further investigations
on the relationship between the size reductions and characteristic
factors of general Sierpinski carpet antennas. In this paper, a
Jian-shu Luo and Ying Li
Dept of Mathematics and System Science,
College of Science, NUDT,
Changsha, China
fequencies, the length of the antennas and K-value are carried out
by Ansof HFSS whose simulations are testifed to be good and
acceptable. What's more, a deeper connection between the size
reduction and K-value is achieved.
II. K-SIERPINSKI CARPET ANTENNA
A. K-Sierpinski Carpet Description
The frst few stages in the construction of the K-Sierpinski
carpet, K=6, are shown in Figure 1. The procedure for
geometrically constructing this kind of fractal begins with a
rectangle contained in the plane whose length is bo while its width
is ao, as illustrated in Stage 0 of Figure 1. The next step in the
construction process (see Stage I of Figure I) is to remove the
central rectangle whose length and width is one over K of the
patch i the pre-stage. Then, each side of the rectangle in Stage 0
is trisected to get nine same rectangles. It is illustrated clearly by
the dashed shown in Stage 2 of Figure 1. The third process is
similar to the frst process, but is carried out on the eight
rectangles except the middle one, as illustrated in Stage 2 of
Figure 1. The next stage (i.e., Stages 3) in the construction is also
shown in Figure 1. The K-Sierpinski carpet factal is generated by
carrying out the second and third iterative process an infmite
number of times. It is easy to see fom this defnition that the
K-Sierpinski carpet is an example of a self-similar fractal. The
3-Sierpinski carpet is the standard Sierpinski carpet, which is
considered the most.
general Sierpinski carpet is proposed, which is called the
Stage 0
Stage |
K-Sierpinski carpet. Then, lots of simulations on resonant
978-1-4244-9793-5/11/$26.00 2011 LLL 382 July 26-30, 2011
Stage Z
Stage 3
Figure I. Several stages in the construction of a 6-Sierpinski carpet factal
Similarly, it is easy to get the K-Sierpinski gasket factal,
whose procedure in construction is illustrated in Figure 2. K-value
means the length of the removed triangle is one over K of the
pre-one. The 2-Sierpinski gasket is the standard Sierpinski gasket,
which has been attracted the most attentions in the Sierpinski
factal antennas.
Stage 0 Stage l
Stage Z Stage 3
Figure 2. Several stages in the construction of a 4-Sierpinski gasket factal
Most of iterated function systems '
'

are based on the

application of one Hutchinson operator, W, which can be
represented as
where Wn are a series of affne transformations, defned by
and A
o
IS the initial geometry. A fractal geometry can be
383
obtained by repeatedly applying Wto the previous geometry.
The segments removed fom the K-Sierpinski carpet can be
generated through Iterated Function Systems (IFS), but it needs
two Hutchinson operators. So does the K-Sierpinski gasket. The
iterated function system codes for the two Hutchinson operators
have been provided respectively in Figure 3. The frst code is
related to the second process while the second is linked to the third
one. The variations e' and f are determined by pre-number and
post-number of (x, y) to keep the central point of the rectangle
unchanged.
^ c d e
J
I/3 0 o I/3
.
/3
.
/3
I/3 0 o I/3 0
^.
/3
I/3 0 o I/3
.
/3
.
/3
I/3 0 o I/3
.
/3 0
I/3 0 o I/3
.
/3
.
/3
[i
b c d e

,
l
I/3 0 o I/3 0
.
/3
0 0
,
I/3 0 o I/3
.
/3
.
/3
e
I/3 0 o I/3
.
/3 0

LOdc ! LOdc Z
Figure 3. The iterated function system codes for the removed segments in the
K-Sierpinski carpet
D. HFSS Antenna Model
Figure 4 shows the simulated confgurations of the K-Sierpiski
carpet factal antenna in Ansof HFSS. The initial length and
width of rectangle patch are 80mm and 76mm, respectively. The
I-mm-thick substrate is FR4-epoxy whose relative permittivity is
4.4. The total volume of the antennas is163x157xlmm3 All
the proposed factal antennas are based on these dimensions.
Y01:I1
Y0:I. Y0:IJ
Figure 4. Simulated configurations of the K-Sierpiski carpet in Ansof HFSS.
Model I:zero iteration, Model 2: frst iteration.
Various steps in the simulations are summarized as follows.
1) Rectangular patch antennas of different sizes are simulated
with Ansof HFSS. With an 8-mm step the length is ranged fom
68mm to I08mm while the width fom 64mm to I04mm. Then
compare the results of simulations with the theoretical results
which are tured out to be almost accurate.
2) Simulate the frst order of K-Sierpinski carpet fractal
antennas with different sizes and K-values. Because the width of
the antenna has a little effect on the lowest resonant fequency
which is testifed by our former simulations, let ao=80mm. The
length is ranged fom 68mm to l08mm with an 8-mm step and
K-value is ranged of integer fom 2 to 8.
3) More simulations of the rectangular patch antennas are
carried out so that the lowest resonant fequencies of the
K-Sierpinski carpet factal antennas obtained in Step 2 can be
covered.
Ill. SIMULATION RSULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
A. Simulation Results
TABLE 1 shows the relative errors between the lowest simulated
resonant fequencies of rectangular patch antennas with different
size and the theoretical fequencies. As can be seen from TABLE 1,
the average of the relative errors is approximately 3.3%. It proves
that the simulation results of Ansof HFSS are reasonable and
acceptable and the next results achieved though the sof are also
reliable.
TABLE I. RELATIVE ERRORS OF RESONANT FREQUENCIES OF RECTANGULAR
PATCH ANTENAS WITH DIFFERENT SIZES BETWEEN THE SIMULATED AND THE
THEORETICAL

o
(
mm
08 70 84 9Z 00 08
04 2.8% 3.5% 5.6% 3.0% 3.2% 3.1%
7Z 4.8% 2.2% 2.9% 2.9% 3.0% 3.0%
80 3.6% 4.4% 2.8% 4.1% 2.9% 2.8%
88 4.6% 0.9% 2.7% 2.7% 4.3% 2.7%
90 4.5% 1.9% 3.8% 2.6% 2.7% 4.3%
04 3.4% 3.0% 3.8% 2.5% 4.2% 4.2%
The lowest resonant fequencies of the frst order of the
K-Sierpiski carpet factal antennas with different sizes and
K-values are shown in Figure 5. It is convinced that there is a
certain correlation among the lowest resonant frequencies, the
length and K-value. It is observed that the resonant fequencies
increase while K-value becomes larger and decrease while the
length increases. The K-Sierinski caret fractal antennas have a
similar relationship between the resonant frequencies and the
length as the rectangular patch antennas have, because the f - b
curves are almost parallel which is revealed in Figure 5. Moreover
the K-Sierpinski carpet fractal antennas have lower resonant
fequencies with the same length, compared to the rectangular
patch antennas. And the resonant fequencies fall off and the
drops become more when K-value decreases. So it can compact
the size of the antennas with the special property. The frther
discussions on the contact between the resonant frequencies and
K-value will be presented in the next part.
I
`

...........--
.
`
_ J=2
.

+
.8
`

.8 ^ -K
=
3
D
0.`
`
1

0. t--J=4
.6
`
0.o + -
J=
5
.`` --

`
J=6
0.4
`

4 !00 !0
J=(
h//|/||
Figure 5. Resonant fequencies of the first order of K-Sierpinski carpet antennas
with diferent sizes and K. K= 0 means K-Siepinski carpet is degenerated as
rectangular patch.
384
D. Discussions
To get a deeper insight on the relationship, we convert variation
of resonant frequencies into the size reductions of the antennas. In
detail, we simulate a large range of the rectangle patch antennas
with the same width, ao=80mm, and derive the patches' lengths
while they possess the same lowest resonant frequencies of the
frst order of the K-Sierpinski antennas. Then, the K-Sierpinski
carpet factal antennas with different size and K-value are mapped
with a special rectangular patch antenna with a certain length, as
shown in TABLE 2.
Results in TABLE 2 demonstrate that the reduction is almost
determined by K-value and has a little relationship with the length,
and the larger K-value is, the more the reduction is. Averaging the
reduction for each K-value, we have a clear connection of the
reduction and K-value, as shown in Figure 6. It is convenient to
determine a rough K-value which can suit a certain required
reduction of the K-Sierpinki fractal antenna.
TABLE II. REDUCTIONS OF THE FIRST ORDER OF K-SIERPINSKI CARPET
COMPARED TO RECTANGULAR PATCH. (F-O-K MEANS FIRST ORER OF
K-SIERPINSKI, R-P MEANS RECTANGULAR PATCH, RED MEANS REDUCTION. )
-O-K R-P Red -O-K R-P Red
68 81 13 68 70 2
K=) 76 88 12 K=0 76 79 3
84 96 12 84 86 2
68 75 7 68 69 1
K=4 76 83 7 K=7 76 78 2
84 90 6 84 85 1
68 71 3 68 69 1
K= 76 80 4 K=8 76 78 2
84 87 3 84 84 0
I4
I2

IU
-
.8
8

6
.:
"
4 '
~
2
\
\
\



--
U
3 4 S 1 6 7 8
Figure 6. Relationship of reduction and K
IV. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, a general K-Sierpinski carpet factal and its IFS
codes are proposed. It can provide more possibilities for antenna
design. Moreover, resonant frequencies of the K-Sierpinski carpet
factal antennas with different size and K-value are simulated with
the help of Ansof HFSS. With the method that converting
fequency variation into reduction variation, an interesting
relationship that the reductions of the K-Sierpinski carpet factal
antennas are almost detennined by K is shown, which can help to
design compact antennas easily.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Yuhai Gao for his valuable
comments relating to this article.
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