Abstract
In this paper, a novel wideband conformal fractal antenna is proposed for GPS application. The concepts of fractal and partial ground are used in conformal antenna design for miniaturization and bandwidth enhancement. It comprises of Minkowski fractal patch on a substrate of Rogers RT/duroid 5880 with permittivity 2.2 and thickness of 0.787mm with microstrip inset feed. The proposed conformal antenna has a patch dimension about 0.39λmm×0.39λmm, and partial ground plane size is 29mm×90mm.The proposed antenna is simulated, fabricated and measured for both planar and conformal geometry, with good agreement between measurements and simulations. The size of the fractal patch is reduced approximately by 32% as compared with conventional patch. It is observed that the conformal antenna exhibits a fractional bandwidth(for the definition of -10dB) of 43.72% operating from 1.09 to 1.7GHz, which is useful for L1(1.56-1.58GHz), L2(1.21-1.23GHz), L3(1.37-1.39GHz), L4(1.36-1.38GHz), and L5(1.16-1.18 GHz) in GPS and Galileo frequencies: E=1589.742MHz(4MHzbandwidth), E2=1561. 098MHz(4MHzbandwidth), E5a=1176.45MHz(=L5),E5b= 1207.14MHz, and E6=1278.75MHz(40MHz bandwidth). The radiation pattern exhibits an omnidirectional pattern, and gain of proposed antenna is 2.3dBi to 3.5dBi within operating frequency range.
Highlights
Global Positioning System (GPS) require compact and wideband antennas for receivers installed on moving vehicles, missiles and hand held devices
GPS antennas are to be placed on convenient location on the platform where omnidirectional coverage is assured without any obstruction of the signal transmitted from satellites
Minkowski fractal iterations from the initiator to the second of the conducting patch are simulated for both planar and conformal with 60mm radius surfaces
Summary
Global Positioning System (GPS) require compact and wideband antennas for receivers installed on moving vehicles, missiles and hand held devices. Microstrip antennas are best choice for conformal antennas due to their thin profile configuration, less weight and low volume These antennas have reduced aerodynamic drag, smaller radar cross section, more angular coverage and less visible to human eye [1,2,3]. Zhang xiangjun et al proposed a conformal cylindrical GPS antenna array for L1 band only with 20MHz bandwidth and less peak gain[8]. Karmakar et al proposed a complementary stacked patch antenna with fractal shape defect for wideband characteristics for 1.8 to 6.4 GHz with fractional bandwidth of 89.1% on flat surface [10]. A novel high-performance wideband cylindrical conformal antenna based on the fractal structure is proposed for GPS and Galileo frequency application.
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