Design and Implementation of a Compact Super-Wideband Printed Antipodal Antenna Using Fractal Elements

A compact printed fractal antipodal bow-tie antenna is designed and implemented to simultaneously cover the operations in the C, X, and Ku-bands. It is demonstrated that by addition of small fractal elements at the sides of hexagonal arms of the bow-tie, a wide operating frequency range of 3.3 to 19.1 GHz can be covered while antenna size is only 30×34×1.2 mm^3. In order to match the antenna to the 50Ω SMA connector, a multi-section microstrip line of different widths is designed. The simulation results obtained from HFSS simulator package are verified by experimental measurements. Measured data are in good agreement with the simulated results. The frequency- and time-domain characteristics of the antenna including impedance matching, far-field patterns, radiation efficiency, gain, and fidelity factor are presented and discussed. The proposed antenna features 141% impedance bandwidth (defined by -10-dB reflection coefficient), small size, and desirable radiation patterns that make it excellent candidate for integration in broadband array systems.