Introducing Multiband and Wideband Microstrip Patch Antennas Using Fractal Geometries: Development in Last Decade

Abstract

This paper deals with an extensive review of incorporating compactness, multiband and wideband features in microstrip patch antennas and their arrays using electrodynamics of various fractal shapes. A fractal geometry uses self-similar or its own scaled down replica for increasing the perimeter of given shape. This gives rise to increased current length leading to miniaturization. Different fractal shapes like Minkowski Island, Koch snowflake, Sierpinski carpet, Sierpinski gasket, crossbar tree, and several polygonal shapes and their hybrids are discussed in this paper. Applications of these fractal shapes in the field of modern wireless systems are also discussed. This paper also incorporates quantitative analysis involved in achieving miniaturization and multiband properties of microstrip antennas due to fractalization.