2014 IEEE International Microwave and RF Conference (IMaRC)
A Compact Octagonal shaped Fractal UWB MIMO Antenna With 5.5
GHz Band-notch Characteristics
Shrivishal Tripathi1 , Akhilesh Mohan2 and Sandeep Yadav 1
1
CoE-Information and Communication Technology, Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, India
2
Department of Electronics & Electrical Communication, Indian institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India
Abstract — In this paper, a compact octagonal shaped fractal
ultrawideband (UWB) multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO)
antenna is presented. The application of Minkowski fractal
geometry in antenna design provides desired miniaturization and
wideband phenomena. To achieve the good isolation both the
antenna are placed orthogonal to each other and an L-shape
ground stub is enhanced from the ground plane. The C-shape
slot is used for WLAN band notch. The proposed antenna has
compact size of 40 mm × 25 mm.
Index Terms — Ultrawideband (UWB) antenna, MIMO
antenna, Fractal geometry, WLAN, band-rejection.
I. INT RODUCT ION
Ultrawideband (UWB) technology attracted much attentions
of researcher from academia and industry after the
authorization of unlicensed use of 3.1-10.6 GHz, by Federal
Communication Commission (FCC) in 2002 [1]. However,
UWB system faces multipath fading challenges in the
communication channel because of reflection and diffraction
of signal between receiver and transmitter. This problem can
be resolved using multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO)
technology [2]. MIMO systems use multiple antennas to
transmit and receive signals with different fading
characteristics, which help to enhance the system reliability
and channel capacity [3]-[4]. However, the use of multiple
antennas in a compact area degraded the antenna
characteristics because of several mutual coupling. Several
UWB MIMO antennas have been reported for UWB systems
[5]-[7].
The UWB system faces electromagnetic (EM) interference
problems with existing narrowband communication system
such as IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN)
from 5.15-5.85 GHz, operating in the UWB range. To achieve
the band rejection many methods have been proposed, such as
split-ring resonator [8], open loop resonator [9], T-shaped
strips in monopole [10] and U-shaped structure [11]. Hence,
design of a compact UWB MIMO antenna with low mutual
coupling and band notch characteristic is very challenging
task. UWB antenna with band rejection in WLAN band is
reported in [12]-[13]. Moreover, the large dimensions of these
antenna structures make it difficult to integrate it with modern
mobile devices and UWB dongle applications. The application
of fractal geometry in antenna design provides desired
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miniaturization and wideband phenomena because of its self-
similarity and space filling properties [14]-[16]. The space
filling property helps to increases the effective electrical path
length of the antenna in a given small area [14]-[15]. This
implies that use of fractal geometry provide increment in
electrical path length in a smaller area. A number of fractal
geometries for example Koch snowflake [15], hexagonal
shaped [14], and Sierpinski triangle [14]-[15] are used to
design UWB antenna. The application of fractal geometry in
antenna design also helps to stabilize the radiation pattern at
higher frequency [17].
In this paper, a compact MIMO UWB antenna with WLAN
band notch characteristic is presented. The application of
Minkowski fractal geometry at the edges of octagonal shape
monopole helps to achieve the compactness and wideband
phenomena. The band notch characteristics in WLAN band is
obtained by etching C-shaped slot from the monopole of the
structure. The introduction of rectangular slot in the ground
plane helps to achieve the UWB operational band. A
decoupling L-shaped ground stub is introduced between the
two monopoles, which improves the isolation. The prototype
is fabricated to verify the simulated characteristics of the
antenna.
II. A NT ENNA DESIGN
A. Antenna Configuration
The geometry of the UWB MIMO antenna with WLAN
band notch characteristics, with overall dimensions of 40 mm
× 25 mm × 1.6 mm is shown in Fig. 1. The presented
prototype is fabricated on FR4 substrate, with dielectric
constant of 4.4 and loss tangent of 0.02. Both, the octagonal
shaped fractal monopoles are identical to each other and
placed orthogonally. A 50 Ω microstrip line is used to fed both
the fractal monopole. The iterative generation of Minkowski
fractal geometry is shown in Fig. 2. The iteration wise
application of Minkowski fractal at the edges of Octagonal
geometry is presented in Fig. 3. Here, octagonal shape work as
an initiator and Minkowski geometry work as a generator in
the design of monopole of the antenna. To further improve the
isolation and enhance the operational bandwidth within a
smaller area, one out of eight fractal segment of monopole is
Fig. 1. Geometry of the proposed fractal UWB M IM O antenna.

Fig. 2 Recursive Generation of M inkowski structure (a) Iteration-0,

(b) Iteration-1 and (c) Iteration-2.

Fig. 4. Simulated S-parameters variation of proposed fractal UWB

M IM O antenna (a) S11 and S22, (b) S21/S12.

Fig. 3 Evolution of the fractal monopole of antenna structure with the

application of M inkowski geometry at the edges of Octagonal
geometry (a) Initiator, (b) After 1st iteration and (c) After 2nd iteration

etched from the geometry. When both antennas are close to

each other, isolation response of the antenna degraded
significantly. This modification in geometry increases the
separation between orthogonal fractal monopole. The
introduction of rectangular slots in the ground plane helps to
achieve the UWB operational bandwidth. An L-shape ground
stub is extended from the ground between the two monopoles.
The band rejection in WLAN band is obtained by etching C-
shape slot from the fractal monopole of the UWB MIMO
antenna. The process of analysis and designing of the
proposed UWB MIMO antenna is carried out using Ansoft
HFSS ver.13. The optimized dimension are: W = 40 mm, R =
4.6 mm, W m = 2.6 mm, Lg = 8.5 mm, T = 0.3 mm, d = 1mm,
L1 = 1.2 mm, L2 = 3.4 mm, L3 = 7 mm, L4 = 15.5 mm, L5 = 1
mm, L6 = 2.5 mm, W 1 = 7mm, W 2 = 8.5 mm, Ls1 = 2.5 mm,
W s1 = 2 mm, Ls2 = 1.5 mm, W s2 = 4 mm, Ls3 = 2 mm, W s3 =
10.5 mm, Ls4 = 3 mm, W s4 = 1 mm, Ls5 = 1.5 mm and W s5 = 2
mm.
B. Effect of L-shape stub
Fig. 4 shows the effect of ground stub on the s-parameters.
It is observed from Fig. 4(a) that S11 response at lower
frequency of operating band is reduced as well as improves at
Fig. 5. Simulated surface current distribution (a) at 4 GHz without L-
shape stub (b) at 4 GHz with L-shape stub (c) at 10.2 GHz without L-
shape stub (d) at 10.2 GHz with L-shape stub.
higher frequency range when ground stub is present because
of increment in the surface current path. Fig. 4(b) presents the
isolation variation of UWB MIMO antenna with and without
ground stub. It is observed that S21 /S12 response is
significantly reduced to below -15 dB in the UWB operating
range, which in turn helps to achieve decoupling bandwidth in
the UWB range.
The effect of stub is better understood using surface current
distribution at 4 and 10.2 GHz resonant frequencies as
displayed in Fig. 5. It is observed that when ground stub is not
present, surface current is distributed at fractal monopole1
(FM1) and fractal monopole2 (FM2). Moreover, surface
current distribution intensity is strong at FM1 compared to
FM2. However, mutual coupling is significantly reduced at

179
 the UWB operating range. Fig. 9 shows the measured
radiation pattern in E-plane (yz-plane) and H-plane (xz-plane)
at different resonant frequencies. Fig. 9(a) shows the radiation
pattern at resonant frequencies when port 2 is excited and port
1 is matched with a 50Ω load, whereas in case of Fig. 9(b)
port 1 is excited and port 2 is matched with a 50Ω load. It is
observed that radiation pattern is nearly quasi-omnidirectional
in H-plane. The radiation pattern at higher frequencies shows
small distortion compared to lower frequencies due to the
reflection at edges from the fractal monopole. The bends and
curves of fractal geometry cause for the change in current
path, which in turn leads to enhancement in radiation
characteristics of the antenna [19]. The surface current
distribution intensity at the fractal edges of the monopole of
the antenna is significant at lower and higher resonant
frequencies. This helps to improve the antenna gain too. Fig.
10 shows the measured gain of the proposed antenna for both
Fig. 6. Simulated surface current distribution at 5.5 GHz notch ports (when port 1 is excited, port 2 is terminated with 50Ω
frequency (a) with notch structure and (b) without notch structure. load, and vice versa) in the UWB band. The gain response is
within 3dB variation range outside WLAN notch band. The
FM2 after the integration of L-shape ground stub because of
strong current associated with the ground stub, which in turn
leads to improve the isolation and operational bandwidth.
C. Effect of C-shape notch
The band notch characteristics at WLAN band is obtained
by etching C-shape slot from the fractal monopole of the
antenna. The length of the slot is calculated mathematically
by-
Fig. 7. Photograph of the fabricated UWB M IM O antenna (a) front
c view and (b) rear view.
L  2L1  2L2  L3
2f notch eff
(1)
where, c is speed of light, fnotch is center frequency of notch
band, ɛeff is the effective dielectric constant [18], and L is the
length of the slot.
The simulated surface current distribution of antenna at
notch frequency is shown in Fig. 6. It is observed that current
intensity is high at the inner and outer boundaries of C-shape
slot and current direction is opposite to each other, which in
turn leads to cancellation of radiation field of each other. This
leads to high attenuation at notch frequency.

III. RESULT S AND DISCUSSION

The presented UWB MIMO antenna is fabricated and
measurement is performed using Agilent E5071C vector
network analyzer (VNA). The photograph of the fabricated
UWB antenna top view and bottom view is shown in Fig. 7.
The simulated and measured S11 , S22 and S21 of the UWB
MIMO antenna are shown in Fig. 8. As displayed in Fig. 8(a),
S11 <-10dB and S22 <-10dB in the UWB operating range,
except WLAN notch band, is achieved. The mutual coupling
behavior of antenna is less than -15 dB. Thus, the presented Fig. 8. Comparison of simulated and measured S-parameters result
UWB MIMO antenna satisfies the desired characteristics in (a) S11 and S22, (b) S21/S12.

180

Fig. 9. Radiation characteristics of the UWB M IM O antenna in E-
plane and H-plane at 4.0 GHz ( ), 6.4 GHz ( ) and
10.2 GHz ( ) (a) port 1 is matched; (b) port 2 is matched.
Fig. 10. M easured gain of the proposed UWB M IM O antenna.
gain response is suppressed significantly in the notch band.
IV. CONCLUSION
A compact fractal UWB MIMO antenna with WLAN band -
rejection characteristics is studied in this paper. The
application of Minkowski geometry in antenna design
provides desired miniaturization and wideband phenomena.
The L-shaped ground stub helps to improve the isolation
between orthogonally placed antennas. The band notch
characteristic at WLAN band is obtained by etching C-shaped
slot from the fractal monopole of antenna structure. Moreover,
the fractal edges of monopole help to obtain the stable
radiation pattern at higher resonant frequencies . The proposed
antenna has a compact dimension of 40 mm × 25 mm. This
design approach provides a solution for wideband compact
antenna with good antenna characteristics.
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