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Hilbert fractal
Modified Hilbert fractal geometry
geometry, multi-service,
miniaturized patch antenna for
1835
UWB wireless communication
Ademola O. Kaka, Mehmet Toycan and Vali Bashiry
Cyprus International University, Faculty of Engineering,
Department of Electric and Electronic Engineering, Nicosia, Turkey, and
Stuart D. Walker
School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex,
Colchester, UK

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe a modified Hilbert-based fractal antenna for ultra
wideband (UWB) wireless applications. Simulation results show excellent multi-band characteristics
for UWB wireless applications.
Design/methodology/approach – A Hilbert curve-based fractal is optimised for self-replicating,
space-filling and self-avoiding properties. In the proposed design, the Hilbert curve is applied to a
rectangle as an initial iteration and maintained for the later iterations. Additionally, a Yagi-like strip is
removed from the second iteration of the Hilbert patch and a hexagonal portion is removed from the
substrate to achieve good optimization. The antenna feed is created through a micro-strip line with a
feeding section. Finally, a partial ground plane technique is used for improved impedance matching
characteristics. A finite element method (FEM) is used to simulate the modified Hilbert model with
commercially available Ansoft HFSS software.
Findings – The proposed antenna is miniaturized (39 mm length £ 30 mm width) and has
multi-band characteristics. The simulation results show that the antenna has a reflection coefficient
characteristic of ,2 10 dB, a linear phase reflection coefficient, better than 65 percent radiation
efficiency, 2.2-4 dBi antenna gain and nearly omni-directional radiation pattern properties over the
UWB bandwidth (3.1-10.6 GHz).
Originality/value – The antenna shows promising characteristics for the full 7.5 GHz UWB
bandwidth. In addition, the performance is achieved by using laceration techniques on the Hilbert
patch and substrate, respectively. A partial ground plane ensures impedance matching of 50 over full
UWB bandwidth. The simulation analysis of the modified Hilbert fractal antenna design constitutes
the main contribution of the paper.
Keywords Hilbert curve, Fractal antennas, Multi-frequency antenna, UWB communication,
Communication technologies, Bandwidths, Finite element analysis
Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction
COMPEL: The International Journal
Advanced multimedia services are currently attracting considerable attention and for Computation and Mathematics in
wireless personal area networks (WPANs) offer a new mobile lifestyle filled with Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Vol. 31 No. 6, 2012
flexibility. As a consequence, consumers expect more bandwidth for wireless pp. 1835-1849
connectivity at home. With the rapid evolution of interactive multimedia services, q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0332-1649
high definition TV (HDTV), video on demand (VoD) and other emerging DOI 10.1108/03321641211267146
COMPEL bandwidth requirements, the development of high capacity and future proof wireless
31,6 network solutions is a pressing need. Ultra wideband (UWB) technology can offer new
opportunities and flexibility for WPAN designs. UWB has uniquely attractive
transmission features, such as flexibility, robustness and high precision ranging
capabilities. As such, it is an excellent candidate for various types of applications
requiring high data rates over short ranges and medium bit rates over medium-to-long
1836 ranges (FCC-V48, 2002). It can be stated that UWB technology will satisfy the
worldwide requirements for applications based on certified wireless USB and WiMedia
(Lansford and Shoemaker, 2007).
As a consequence of UWB technology, the design of low cost antennas with
omni-directional radiation patterns, large bandwidth and non-dispersive behaviour is
quite crucial and challenging concept in wireless and personal communication systems
(Schantz, 2005; Fujimoto et al., 1987). In addition, these antennas should utilize full UWB
bandwidth (3.1-10.6 GHz) and be small in size for portable wireless applications. UWB
characterizes the transmission system with instantaneous spectral occupancy in excess
of 500 MHz and effective isotropic radiation power (EIRP) below 2 41.3 dBm/MHz
(FCC-V48, 2002). Due to its ultra-low radiation power, it offers good performance
and robust coexistence in the presence of other wireless services, such as the IEEE
802.16 and the IEEE 802.11 wireless local area networks (WLANs). There are three
well-defined methods of generating UWB radio signals, impulse radio (IR-UWB), direct
sequence (DS-UWB), and multi-band OFDM (MB-OFDM) (Oppermann et al., 2004).
MB-OFDM UWB technology, based on ECMA 368 standards (ECMA-368, 2008), is
considered as an efficient transmission methodology for multi-service and high data rate
WPANs in order to avoid pulse-related issues of IR-UWB. The multi-band frequency
spectrum is shown in Figure 1.
In previous years, several antenna designs were proposed in order to achieve the
desired characteristics for UWB applications (Low et al., 2005; Ahmed and Sebak,
2008). There are two well-defined criteria which must be met to achieve multi-band and
efficient characteristics: the design must be symmetrical about a point and self-similar,
having the same appearance at every scale. In addition, it has been shown that the
bandwidth of an antenna can be improved when the antenna uses the surrounding
space efficiently (Hansen, 1981).
Fractal geometries consist of segments that look each other and the whole object,
independently of scale. Repeating geometrics are known as fractal and show more
efficient antenna characteristics than the traditional Euclidean ones (Baliarda et al.,
2000). Mandelbrot (1983) called this new topology a fractal dimension. Fractal geometries
and methods are used in several scientific and engineering approaches including the

Figure 1.
Frequency band plan
for UWB band groups
generation of lighting, galactic clouds and branching of trees (Werner and Ganguly, Hilbert fractal
2003). Self-similarity and space-filling property are the two distinctive characteristics of geometry
fractal geometries. For example, in the space-filling property, there is an increase in the
electrical length of the plane whilst leaving the physical size unchanged; a much longer
electrical length can be packed into a small physical area. This concept allows for
miniaturization and also the targeting of selected frequencies. It is shown that the modern
theory of fractal design is an effective way of designing miniaturized, wide band and 1837
multi-band (multi-service) antennas (Rahmat-Samii and Gianvittorio, 2002). The design
is completed by bending, extracting or shaping a volume according to the fractal
requirements. Researchers have introduced several fractal geometries for antenna
applications and some of these designs show compact and multi-band characteristics
(Kim et al., 2002; Best, 2003). These include studies on the Koch loop, Sierpinski gasket,
Minkowski loop and Hilbert type antenna. Radiation resistance, quality factor (Q), and
the efficiency of Hilbert, modified Minkowski fractal, Koch fractal and some other
space-filling fractal antennas are discussed and presented in Best (2003).
Hilbert type fractal antennas have already achieved miniaturization (Vinoy et al.,
2001; Romeu and Blanch, 2002; Anguera et al., 2002). Resonant properties of a wire,
Hilbert antenna in free space and a vertical Hilbert monopole are shown in Vinoy et al.
(2001) and Anguera et al. (2002), respectively. However, it was also observed that
Hilbert fractal-based antennas are generally utilized for lower frequency band
applications. In this paper, we propose a fractal patch antenna for the full UWB
bandwidth (3.1-10.6 GHz) by modifying the third iteration of the Hilbert fractal. We
obtain the mathematical modelling of the generation of Hilbert curve and the radiation
characteristics of the antenna. The realized antenna has good matching characteristics,
omni-directional radiation patterns, a good gain and high efficiency. The generation of
a Hilbert fractal curve and the modified Hilbert fractal curve are introduced in Sections
2(A) and 2(B) simultaneously. Simulation return loss analysis, antenna impedance
matching, radiation characteristics and the performance of the proposed antenna are
discussed in Section 3. Conclusions are given in Section 4.

2. Geometric generation and configuration of antenna

A. Hilbert curve fractal
A Hilbert curve is a space-filling fractal geometry that also has self-avoiding
properties. Hilbert fractal generation is shown in Figure 2 (Sagan, 1994). The
generation process begins by mapping a line on a square, and then the line is divided

0 1 0 0.5 1 0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1 Figure 2.

(a) (b) (c) Hilbert fractal generation
process
Notes: (a) Initiator; (b) first iteration; (c) second iteration
COMPEL into four congruent sub-intervals of half the original size similarly, a square is
31,6 divided into four congruent sub-squares half the size at initialization. Then, each
created interval is mapped continuously onto individual sub-squares.
At the first iteration, four identical lines are mapped on four identical sub-squares
with an inverted U shape. In the second iteration, each of the four sub-squares is divided
into four more sub-squares. The previous U shape is reduced to half its original size and
1838 copied into each sector of new four squares with the same methodology applied to the
later iterations such that process can be carried indefinitely. Antenna radiation
characteristics are strongly influenced by the mapping relationship that exists between
the sub-squares and sub-intervals; these latter being mapped onto adjacent
sub-squares. If an interval corresponds to a certain square, then the sub-interval
must correspond to that particular square. This association is called the inclusion
relationship (Sagan, 1994). The Hilbert curve also has a property that most fractals do
not possess: namely self-avoidance. Self-avoidance means that no matter how many line
segments exist within the geometry, these segments do not intersect with each other;
tending to avoid themselves. The four linear transformations, as shown below, are
obtained (Sagan, 1994) to generate the first iteration of the Hilbert curve.
! " # ! !
1 x1 1 0 1 x1 1 0
w0 z ¼ zi : w0 ¼ þ ð1Þ
2 x2 2 1 0 x2 2 0
! " # ! !
1 i x1 1 1 0 x1 1 0
w1 z ¼ z þ : w1 ¼ þ ð2Þ
2 2 x2 2 0 1 x2 2 1
! " # ! !
1 1 i x1 1 1 0 x1 1 1
w2 z ¼ z þ þ : w2 ¼ þ ð3Þ
2 2 2 x2 2 0 1 x2 2 1
! " # ! !
1 i x1 1 0 21 x1 1 2
w3 z ¼ 2 zi þ 1 þ : w3 ¼ þ ð4Þ
2 2 x2 2 21 0 x2 2 1

B. Modified Hilbert curve fractal antenna

The design and generation process of the modified Hilbert antenna retains most of the
steps involved in making the original Hilbert fractal curve. All of the space-filling
shapes are constructed using the iterated function of systems (IFS) algorithms. The
modified geometry is truncated after the second iteration. The generation stages and
the final modified Hilbert curve are shown in Figure 3. In this case, the design begins
with a rectangle, instead of a square. Successive iterations consist of four copies of the
previous, connected with additional line segments. The basic rectangle is replaced with
four half-size versions, each missing an edge for the first iteration. This process
continues for the second iteration as well. The modified Hilbert geometry also inherits
a space-filling curve which fills the area it occupies for the later iterations. For the
iterations higher than the second, reduction of the operating frequency is quite difficult
since the antenna design becomes quite complicated with attendant fabrication issues.
Consequently, the second iteration is considered for the proposed antenna design.
The lines that connect the sub-rectangles and sub-squares are modified in order to Hilbert fractal
utilize the desired radiation characteristics. geometry
Different degrees of variations and adjustments are made to the proposed fractal
antenna in order to achieve the optimized results with respect to matching and
radiation patterns. The fractal concept utilized is the Hilbert curve for the patch. Three
design features were used to achieve high bandwidth, multi-band and good impedance
matching characteristics which should suit industrial and regulatory requirements: 1839
a thin Yagi-Uda like slice is made on the Hilbert form patch along with the hexagonal
radiating patch on the substrate. Finally, a modified ground plane is used on a
dielectric substrate with 50 V microstrip feed line. This technique allows the
bandwidth of the antenna to be UWB with satisfactory radiation properties. The
effects of these three guidelines on the modified Hilbert curve antenna characteristics
in terms of frequency domain and bandwidth are simulated.
The Yagi-like structure, as can be seen in Figure 4, is constructed from three parts.
The lengths are denoted by Y1, Y2 and Y3. Y1 is the longest length (14 mm),
Y2 ¼ 1/2 · Y1 and Y3 ¼ 1/3 · Y1.
In addition to the space-filling property of the Hilbert curve, a Yagi-like slice leads to
a further increment of the electrical length of the antenna without increasing its
physical length suggesting a compact volume. The main benefit of this application is
that the increased electrical length can raise the input resistance of the antenna in a
frequency range where it would appear small. In addition to the lacerations on the
Hilbert copper patch, a hexagonal patch technique is applied to the substrate in order
to improve the matching characteristics and the radiation patterns similar to the
annular ring patch technique (Nikolic and Djordjevic, 2006). The hexagonal laceration
on the substrate behaves as a patch antenna with an air dielectric in order to reduce the
excitation of the surface waves (Khayat et al., 2000). An optimal adjustment of the

Figure 3.
(a) (b) (c) Proposed modified Hilbert
curve fractal antenna
Notes: (a) Initiator; (b) first iteration; (c) second iteration

Y1

Y2

Figure 4.
Configuration of the
Yagi-like patch structure
Y3
COMPEL hexagonal patch can increase the upper frequency and decrease reflection in higher
31,6 band which results with improved impedance bandwidth and radiation characteristics.
In accordance, the dimensions of the patch (a1 ¼ 7.6 mm and a2 ¼ 18.4 mm) are chosen
to reduce the excitation of surface waves (Khayat et al., 2000). The modified Hilbert
fractal based microstrip patch antenna configuration, with Yagi-Uda patch on the
Hilbert curve and hexagonal patch on the substrate, and the dimensions of the patch
1840 are shown in Figure 5(a), (b) and (c), respectively. The antenna was simulated on
Rogers RO3003 substrate with a thickness , 1.1 mm, overall dimensions of
30 £ 39 mm2 (width £ height mm2), relative dielectric constant 1r of 3 and
0.0013 dielectric loss tangent.
The dimensions of the configuration are as follows: da ¼ 2.9 mm, ka ¼ 5.5 mm and
wa ¼ 7 mm. The antenna feed is created through a microstrip line (Kimouche et al.,
2010) with different modifications in order to achieve 50 V impedance matching. The
microstrip line is a combination of two sections as shown in Figure 5(a). The shorter
section at the bottom has the dimension of wc ¼ 3.2 mm and lc ¼ 3.7 mm, respectively,
while the longer section has the dimensions of wd ¼ 2.1 mm and la ¼ 9.2 mm.
In addition, a small portion (length ¼ 6 mm and width ¼ 1 mm) is removed from
the microstrip line as can also be seen in Figure 5(a) which enhances the impedance
bandwidth characteristics. By using these configurations, the 50 V impedance
matching can be achieved for the proposed antenna.

3. Results and discussions

FEM was used to analyze the proposed antenna with commercially available Ansoft
HFSS software. A modified Hilbert curve fractal is generated on the simulator and
three design features are applied simultaneously. The antenna is designed within an
absorbing boundary condition (ABC) to simulate a real life environment. At discrete
frequencies of 3.96, 6.6 and 10.296 GHz, a new mesh based on the wavelength and the
field gradient is completed whilst covering the 3.1-10.6 GHz UWB range. Figure 6
shows the construction of the mesh around the top layer of the proposed antenna at
each discrete frequency.

da

a1

wa
a2
ka

la
wd
lc
wc
Figure 5. (a) (b) (c)
Configuration of the Notes: (a) The Hilbert curve with Yagi-like patch; (b) Hilbert fractal on the
proposed antenna
substrate with the hexagonal laceration; (c) hexagonal laceration dimensions
On the other hand, in our simulation model (HFSS), an adaptive meshing technique is Hilbert fractal
applied with fast sweep in order to utilize the UWB bandwidth with 801 frequency geometry
points. In this technique, the construction is automatically adjusted by the HFSS
simulator to provide the most efficient mesh that is consistent with the electrical
characteristics of the proposed device. It operates by identifying the largest difference
(gradient) in the E-field and then sub-divides the mesh into regions. There is also a
special consideration for the edges in order to input more meshes. To achieve a steady 1841
state, also referred as convergence, an s-parameter comparison is made between the
previous and present sweep. If the results are unchanged, then the solution has
converged. The adaptation frequency is used as 7 GHz for the simulation analysis since
it is close to the centre frequency of the desired bandwidth (3.1-10.6 GHz). The meshing,
that is constructed at 7 GHz, is constant for the whole frequency sweeping. It would
have been a quite beneficial to use the adaptation frequency at higher frequencies of
the desired bandwidth since finer meshes would be constructed at higher frequencies
and it would still be accurate for lower frequencies. Therefore, the field solution is the
most accurate around adaptation frequency. Additional discrete frequency points can
be performed to have better field behaviours for higher frequencies (e.g. Band Group 5:
9.504-10.6 GHz). For this reason, additional frequency sweep is used at 10.296 GHz to
have better field solutions at higher frequencies. As in the first part of the analysis, a
hexagonal radiating patch is applied on the substrate. Figure 7 shows the impact of the

Figure 6.
The construction of mesh
at (a) 3.96 GHz, (b) 6.6 GHz
and (c) 10.296 GHz
(a) (b) (c)

Without Hexagonal Patch Hexagonal Patch with a1 = 5.4 and a2 = 13 Hexagonal Patch with a1 = 7.6 and a2 = 18.4
0

–5

–10
Return Loss (dB)

–15

–20

–25
Figure 7.
–30 Hexagonal patch
–35 simulation analysis by
monitoring return loss
–40
3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5 10 10.5 11
characteristics of the
modified Hilbert antenna
Frequency (GHz)
COMPEL hexagonal patches on the substrate by monitoring simulated return loss (S11)
31,6 performance over UWB bandwidth.
It should be noted that return loss of 2 10 dB and below is acceptable for UWB
transmission. However, it can be realized from Figure 7 that without using hexagonal
laceration, 13 percent of the UWB bandwidth is not within the 2 10 dB standard. In
order to achieve better return loss characteristics over the full UWB range, a hexagonal
1842 portion is removed from the substrate. At first, the hexagonal patch is removed with
the sizes of a1 ¼ 5.4 mm and a2 ¼ 13 mm. It is observed that, slightly better S11
characteristics are achieved. The size of the hexagonal patch is then further increased
to a1 ¼ 7.6 mm and a2 ¼ 18.4 mm in order to observe the impact of bigger patch sizes
on S11 results. It is noticed that the bigger patch produces better results than smaller
sizes. Further size increase is resulted in minimal improvement therefore optimal size
of the hexagonal is adjusted to a1 ¼ 7.6 mm and a2 ¼ 18.4 mm, as can be seen in
Figure 5 as well. At the end of hexagonal patch on the substrate analysis, it is noticed
that there is almost 65 percent improvement on the UWB bandwidth but there are still
some high frequencies (8.2-9.75 GHz) within the UWB bandwidth which do not fall into
the 2 10 dB range.
As the second part of the analysis, some changes are made on the matched Hilbert
copper patch itself in addition to the hexagonal patch on the substrate for better
antenna electrodynamics. Figure 8 shows the changes made on the Hilbert copper
patch by monitoring S11 performances.
At first, a T-shape portion (Y1 ¼ 7.2 mm and Y2 ¼ 4 mm) is removed from the
Hilbert patch. Figure 4 can be seen for the T-shape portion without the Y3 slice. This
can improve the space-filling feature of the Hilbert design, resulting in a smoother path
on the Hilbert curve for the surface current. As can be realized from Figure 8, the
T-shape slice on Hilbert copper patch provides an improved antenna matching.
However, the antenna matching potential does not stay stable for the full 7.5 GHz. For
further improvement, a transverse portion is added to the T-shape such that it
resembles the Yagi-Uda section design. The size of the Yagi-Uda patch can be seen in
Figure 4. The Yagi-Uda patch laceration provides the desired UWB return loss range
(. 2 10 dB) as can be seen in Figure 8. The hexagonal patch with optimized
dimensions and Yagi-Uda laceration shows smoother results than the other two

T-shape cut yagi-uda cut Hexagonal Patch with a1 = 7.6 and a2 = 18.4
0
–5
–10
–15
Return Loss (dB)

–20
–25
–30
Figure 8. –35
Simulation analysis of –40
different slices on Hilbert
–45
copper patch by
considering return loss –50
characteristics of the –55
3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5 10 10.5 11
modified Hilbert antenna
Frequency (GHz)
laceration types. Yagi-Uda slices lead to further increment of the electrical length of the Hilbert fractal
antenna as compared to the other laceration techniques shown in Figure 8 which raises geometry
the input resistance of the antenna when it is used in a UWB frequency range
(3.1-10.6 GHz) as a small antenna. This modification also gives the surface current a
smoother path which also increases the input resistance for the antenna on the
proposed bandwidth range. It is also found that the impedance bandwidth is effectively
improved at the upper frequency when the laceration technique is used. 1843
As the final design guideline, a partial ground technique is used in order to
normalize the impedance matching to the desired 50 V with a unitary matching. By
using this technique, there will be no need for a matching section in a real life
application to match the antenna with the other devices. The proposed antenna is
shown in Figure 5(b) and a partial ground plane technique is applied to this design.
Optimized dimensions of the partial ground plane with 9 mm height and 30 mm width
provides nearly matched antenna to a 50 V source over the full UWB bandwidth. The
final S11 plot, with all the modifications is shown in Figure 9.
Figure 9 shows that a good match was achieved for the whole UWB bandwidth. For
the frequencies between 3.1 and 4 GHz, the simulated S11 is better than 2 10 dB and for
the frequencies between 4 and 10.6 GHz, the simulated return loss is better than
2 15 dB (S11 # 15 dB). Figure 10 shows the simulation results of voltage standing
wave ratio (VSWR) for the proposed antenna. VSWR measurement of the proposed
antenna is less than 2 and this result also correlates with the return loss measurements.
VSWR is less than 1.5 for frequencies between 4 and 10.6 GHz corresponding to the S11
results. It is seen than the antenna satisfactorily covers the entire UWB band according
to the FCC.
The plots in Figures 9 and 10 show that most of the input current is accepted and
radiated by the antenna. Since the antenna meets the requirement (S11 # 10 dB for
UWB applications) and shows promising characteristics for the full 7.5 GHz UWB
bandwidth, it can be clearly stated that the antenna is quite acceptable for UWB
applications.
8 Curve Info
dB (S(1,1))
Setup2 : Sweep1

10

12
Return Loss (dB)

14

16

18
Figure 9.
20 Simulated return loss
characteristics of the
modified Hilbert antenna
22
with all the design
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
guidelines
Frequency (GHz)
COMPEL 2 Curve Info

31,6
VSWR(1)
Setup2 : Sweep1

1.88

1.75

1844 1.63
VSWR

1.5

1.36

1.25
Figure 10.
VSWR simulation
1.13
analysis for the proposed
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
antenna
Frequency (GHz)

In UWB systems, linear phase response of the radiated field as well as stable group
delay response is desirable for a non-distorted shape of the transmitted electric pulse.
It can be realized from Figure 11 that the phase plot of the proposed antenna is
basically linear for the complete UWB range. Therefore, the antenna group delay is
approximately constant within the frequency band of interest which suggests a
non-distorted time domain response of the proposed antenna design.
The input impedance characteristics are one of the techniques that can be used to
characterize the ultrawide antenna (Zhu et al., 2004). The real and imaginary parts of
the input impedance versus frequency plot of the Hilbert fractal are shown in Figure 12.
Almost stable impedance matching characteristics are achieved over the full UWB
bandwidth by enhancing the partial ground plane technique. It can be observed from
Figure 12 that for the lower UWB frequencies (3.1-4.5 GHz), the imaginary part is not
close to zero. This affects the return loss figures of the proposed antenna as well as
200 Curve Info
ang_deg (S(1,1))
Setup3 : Sweep1
150

100
Return Loss Phase

50

–50

–100
Figure 11.
–150
Simulation of the phase of
the reflection coefficient
–200
versus frequency for the
proposed antenna 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Frequency (GHz)
 50 Curve Info
im (Z(1,1))
Hilbert fractal
Setup2 : Sweep1
re (Z(1,1))
geometry
Setup2 : Sweep1
40
Antenna Impedance (ohms)

30

1845
20

10

0
Figure 12.
Input impedance of
–10
proposed antenna: real
part (purple line) and
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
imaginary part (red line)
Frequency (GHz)

shown in Figure 8. However, the return loss is better than 2 10 dB which is still an
acceptable level for UWB antennas. It can be stated that the antenna is matched to an
approximately 50 V line for the UWB bandwidth. A matching circuit can be used for
the real life experiments to have stable 50 V matching for the full UWB bandwidth.
The radiation patterns have been simulated by a frequency sweep over the full
UWB bandwidth and absorbing boundaries have been used for this simulation.
Radiation patterns are generated as a part of the simulation. Figure 13 shows the
simulated two and three dimensional radiation patterns of the proposed antenna at
various frequencies through UWB bandwidth (3.1-10.6 GHz). The behaviour of E-plane
and the H-plane of the proposed antenna is indicated by the purple and red
lines, respectively, at various frequencies. The antenna is printed in the xy-plane, and it
is y-polarised. Therefore, the H-plane for this antenna is xz-plane, and the E-plane is
yz-plane.
It can be observed, from Figure 13 that the antenna can give nearly omni-directional
characteristics in the H-plane and quasi omni-directional pattern in the E-plane with
stable radiation patterns over UWB range. The variation in radiation pattern is
probably due to edge reflections. On the other hand, at 10 GHz and above the antenna is
expected to experience losses in gain and range, due to limitations in the substrate used
for the antenna design and higher mode excitation by the structure. Most of the
patterns have an “8”-shaped pattern corresponding to a three dimensional pattern with
a toroidal shape. The antenna gain versus frequency is shown in Figure 14, which
shows an acceptable antenna gain in the UWB range. This slight increase is a result of
the directional patterns that appear at higher frequencies.

4. Conclusions
A microstrip patch antenna design is proposed using the Hilbert based fractal geometry
with multi-band and broadband characteristics. Core fractal properties, such as
space-filling and self-similarity, ensure miniaturized (39 mm length £ 30 mm width) and
good electrical characteristics for antenna designs. The proposed antenna is compact,
COMPEL
31,6

1846 (a) (b) (c)

(d) (e) (f)

Figure 13.
Simulated radiation (g) (h) (i)
patterns of the proposed Notes: (a) 3.96 GHz; (b) 5.014 GHz; (c) 5.554 GHz; (d) 6.6 GHz; (e) 7.656 GHz;
antenna
(f) 8.184 GHz; (g) 9.24 GHz; (h) 9.768 GHz; (i) 10.296 GHz

4.50
4.00
Antenna Gain (dB)

3.50
3.00
2.50
2.00
1.50
1.00
Figure 14. 0.50
Simulated gain versus 0.00
2

0
8

2
0

8
6

10 8
96

frequency for the proposed

43

96
48

01

54

07
60

12
65

18

71

24
76
.2
3.

3.
4.

5.

5.

6.
6.

7.
7.

8.

8.

9.
9.

antenna
Frequency (GHz)

simple to design and characterized for UWB applications. It is demonstrated that the
modifications, thin Yagi-Uda like slices made on the Hilbert form patch along with the
hexagonal radiating patch on the substrate, show better antenna characteristics that the
conventional Hilbert curve fractal antenna. The structure can support both lower and
higher range functions despite its compact size. For further improvement, a partial
ground plane is used for unitary impedance matching of the antenna. It can be noted that
there will be no need to use a matching section for the proposed antenna when it will be
used in real life applications. Simulation results indicate the impedance bandwidth in the
3.1-10.6 GHz UWB range and show desirable reflection coefficient characteristics. The Hilbert fractal
antenna has S11 characteristics better than 2 10 dB for the frequencies between 3.1 and geometry
4 GHz and better 215 dB (S11 # 15 dB) for the frequencies between 4 and 10.6 GHz. In
accordance, the proposed antenna has better than 65 percent (1 2 jGj) radiation
efficiency over 7.5 GHz UWB bandwidth. Relatively stable and almost omni-directional
performance has been obtained for the radiation patterns over the full UWB bandwidth.
The proposed microstrip patch antenna shows promising simulation results and 1847
antenna can be used for UWB applications. The antenna inherits the space-filling and
self-similarity characteristics of Hilbert curve with the applied guidelines on the design.

References
Ahmed, O. and Sebak, A.R. (2008), “A printed monopole antenna with two steps and a circular
slot for UEWB applications”, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 7,
pp. 411-13.
Anguera, J., Puente, C. and Soler, J. (2002), “Miniature monopole antenna based on the fractal
Hilbert curve”, Proceedings of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International
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Further reading
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Vol. 10, pp. 171-84.

About the authors

Ademola O. Kaka received his OND and HND from the Department of
Electrical and Electronic Engineering of Yaba College of Technology, Nigeria
in 2008. He is currently working towards his MSc degree in the department of
Electrical and Electronic Engineering of Cyprus International University,
North Cyprus. His research interests include miniaturized, ultra high
bandwidth and low loss antenna designs and their applications in wireless
communications, including mobile WiMax, UWB and WiFi. He is also
interested in antenna designs for near field imaging using microwave in medical applications,
such as breast cancer detection.

Asst Prof. Dr Mehmet Toycan received his BSc degree from the Department of
Electric and Electronic Engineering, Eastern Mediterranean University, in 2004.
He received the MSc degree in telecommunications and information systems and
PhD degree in Electronics from University of Essex, Colchester, UK, in 2005 and
2009, respectively. During his PhD degree, he was a member of Access Networks
Laboratory, department of Computer and Electronic Systems at University of
Essex. His research interests include high data rate, dynamic access network
architectures; including applications in Hybrid WDM/TDM-PON and FTTH scenarios. He was
also involved in the Network of Excellence, BONE-project (“Building the Future Optical Network
in Europe”) where he was collaborating with groups from other universities to develop efficient,
low-cost optical access network architectures. His current research interests are in the fields of
low cost, full-duplex, scalable optical access networks featuring wireless communication
transmission over optical fibre links with the extension of multi-cell concept and ultra wide band
antenna designs for wireless applications. Mehmet Toycan is the corresponding author and can Hilbert fractal
be contacted at: mtoycan@ciu.edu.tr
geometry
Assoc. Prof. Dr Vali Bashiry received his MSc degree in 1997 and BSc degree in
1995, from Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS) in
Zanjan/Iran and University of Tabriz in Iran, respectively. He received his PhD
degree in Physics from Middle East Technical University in Ankara/Turkey,
2005. He joined the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department of Cyprus 1849
International University as an Assistant Professor in 2005. He was appointed as
Associate Professor in 2008. Assoc. Prof. Dr Bashiry has been working in the
field of theoretical physics and he is currently involved in many research projects related to
theoretical and phenomenological studies of particle physics. He is also interested in
electromagnetic waves and their propagation either in vacuum or in the medium.

Prof. Dr Stuart D. Walker was born in Dover, UK in 1952. He received the BSc
(Hons) degree in Physics from Manchester University, Manchester, UK, in 1973,
the MSc degree in Telecommunications Systems and PhD degree in Electronics
from Essex University, Colchester, UK, in 1975 and 1981, respectively. He is
currently a Full Professor at Essex University where his main research interest
is access networks. He has been involved in many EPSRC and European Union
research projects over the years, recent examples being BONE, MUSE-I and II,
UROOF, STRONGEST, FIVER and OASE. He has published over 250 peer-reviewed journal and
conference papers and holds four patents.

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