A compact Peano-type fractal based printed slot antenna for dual-band wireless applications

This paper presents the design of a new Co-Planar Waveguide (CPW) fed dual band printed slot antenna with enhanced bandwidths for use in wireless applications. The fractal based slot structure of the proposed antenna is in the form of Peano fractal curve of the second iteration as being applied to the two sides of a rectangular slot. The proposed antenna is to be etched using a substrate with relative permittivity of 4.4 and thickness of 1.6 mm. The resulting antenna has overall dimensions of 36 mm × 45 mm which is suitable for mobile terminal applications. Modeling and performance evaluation of the proposed antenna have been carried out using the CST Microwave Studio. Simulation results shows that the proposed antenna offers dual -10 dB impedance bandwidths of more than 1.2 GHz and 1.4 GHz for the lower and the upper bands respectively with corresponding average gains of about 2.5 dBi and 4 dBi throughout these bands. The first resonant band, centered at 2.50 GHz, extends from 1.91 to 3.11 GHz. This band covers the 2.4 GHz WLAN band (2.4-2.483 GHz) and the 2.5 GHz mobile WiMAX operating band (2.5-2.7 GHz), while the second resonant band, centered at 5.20 GHz; extends from 4.51 to 5.91 GHz. This band covers the U-NII mid-band (5.47-5.725 GHz) and U-NII high-band (5.725-5.875 GHz). Besides the compact size, the antenna offers reasonable radiation characteristics with omnidirectional radiation patterns in the two bands.