Microstrip patch antenna with fractal structure

Claim 2

A microstrip patch antenna including: a substrate having spaced-apart first and second surfaces, said substrate having a thickness substantially smaller than a wavelength at a frequency to be coupled to said antenna; a conductive pattern defining a fractal of iteration order N disposed on the first surface, wherein said fractal is defined as a superposition over at least N=1 interations of a motiff, an iteration being placement of said motif upon a base figure through at least one positioning selected from a group consisting of (i) rotation, (ii) stretching, and (iii) translation; wherein said motif is selected from a group consisting of (i) Koch, (ii) Minkowski, (iii) Cantor, (iv) torn square, (v) Mandelbrot, (vi) Caley tree, (vii) monkey's swing, (viii) Sierpinski gasket, and (ix) Julia; and a conductive pattern disposed on the second surface.

Claim 3

The antenna of claim 1, wherein said pattern on said second surface defines a fractal.

Claim 4

The antenna of claim 1, wherein said motif has x-axis, y-axis coordinates for a next iteration N+1 defined by x N+1 =f(x N , y N ) and y N+1 =g(x N , y N ), where x N , y N are coordinates for iteration N, and where f(x,y) and g(x,y) are functions defining said motif.

Claim 5

The antenna of claim 1, wherein said antenna has a perimeter compression parameter (PC) defined by: ##EQU1## where: PC=A·log [N(D+C)] in which A and C are constant coefficients for a given said motif, N is an iteration number, and D is a fractal dimension given by log(L)/log(r), where L and r are one-dimensional antenna element lengths before and after fractalization, respectively.

Claim 6

The antenna of claim 1, in which said antenna is fabricated in a manner selected from the group consisting of (i) forming upon an insulator substrate a conductive layer defining said fractal, (ii) forming upon a flexible insulator substrate a conductive layer defining said fractal; (iii) forming upon a semiconductor substrate a layer of conductive material to define said fractal, and (iv) removing from a substrate having a surface covered with conductive material a portion of said conductive material to form said fractal.

Claim 7

The antenna of claim 1, wherein said substrate is sized to less than one-quarter wavelength at a frequency of radio frequency signals to be coupled to said antenna.

Claim 8

The antenna of claim 1, wherein said substrate is sized to approximately one-eighth wavelength at a frequency of radio frequency signals to be coupled to said antenna.

Claim 9

The antenna of claim 7, wherein said frequency is approximately 900 MHz.

Claim 10

A microstrip patch antenna including: a substrate having spaced-apart first and second surfaces, said substrate having a thickness substantially smaller than a wavelength at a frequency to be coupled to said antenna; a conductive pattern defining a fractal of iteration order N disposed on the first surface, where said fractal is defined as a superposition over at least N=1 interations of a motiff, an iteration being placement of said motif upon a base figure through at least one positioning selected from a group consisting of (i) rotation, (ii) stretching, and (iii) translation; wherein said antenna has a perimeter compression parameter (PC) defined by: ##EQU2## where: PC=A·log [N(D+C)] in which A and C are constant coefficients for a given said motif, N is an iteration number, and D is a fractal dimension given by log(L)/log(r), where L and r are one-dimensional antenna element lengths before and after fractalization respectively; and a conductive pattern disposed on the second surface.

Claim 11

A microstrip patch antenna including: a substrate having spaced-apart first and second surfaces, said substrate having a thickness substantially smaller than a wavelength at a frequency to be coupled to said antenna; a conductive pattern defining a fractal of iteration order N disposed on the first surface, where said fractal is defined as a superposition over at least N=1 interations of a motiff, an iteration being placement of said motif upon a base figure through at least one positioning selected from a group consisting of (i) rotation, (ii) stretching, and (iii) translation; wherein said antenna has a perimeter compression parameter (PC) defined by: ##EQU2## where: PC=A·log [N(D+C)] in which A and C are constant coefficients for a given said motif, N is an iteration number, and D is a fractal dimension given by log(L)/log(r), where L and r are one-dimensional antenna element lengths before and after fractalization respectively; and a conductive pattern disposed on the second surface.

Claim 12

The antenna of claim 9, wherein said motif is selected from a family consisting of (i) Koch, (ii) Minkowski, (iii) Cantor, (iv) torn square, (v) Mandelbrot, (vi) Caley tree, (vii) monkey's swing, (viii) Sierpinski gasket, and (ix) Julia.

Claim 15

The method of claim 11, wherein at step (c) said conductive pattern is formed so as to define a fractal.

Claim 16

The method of claim 11, wherein at step (b), said fractal on said first surface is defined as a superposition over at least N=1 iterations of a motif, an iteration being placement of said motif upon a base figure through at least one positioning selected from the group consisting of (i) rotation, (ii) stretching, and (iii) translation.

Claim 17

The method of claim 11, wherein said motif has x-axis, y-axis coordinates for a next iteration N+1 defined by x N+1 =f(x N , y N ) and y N+1 =g(x N , y N ), where x N , y N are coordinates for iteration N, and where f(x,y) and g(x,y) are functions defining said motif.

Claim 18

The antenna of claim 9, wherein said antenna is fabricated in a manner selected from the group consisting of (i) forming upon an insulator substrate a conductive layer defining said fractal, (ii) forming upon a flexible insulator substrate a conductive layer defining said fractal; (iii) forming upon a semiconductor substrate a layer of conductive material to define said fractal, and (iv) removing from a substrate having a surface covered with conductive material a portion of said conductive material to form said fractal.

Claim 19

The method of claim 11, wherein said antenna has a perimeter compression parameter (PC) defined by: ##EQU3## where: PC=A·log [N(D+C)] in which A and C are constant coefficients for a given said motif, N is an iteration number, and D is a fractal dimension given by log(L)/log(r), where L and r are one-dimensional antenna element lengths before and after fractalization, respectively.

Claim 20

The method of claim 11, in which said antenna is fabricated in a manner selected from the group consisting of (i) forming upon an insulator substrate a conductive layer defining said fractal, (ii) forming upon a flexible insulator substrate a conductive layer defining said fractal; (iii) forming upon a semiconductor substrate a layer of conductive material to define said fractal, and (iv) providing a substrate having a surface covered with conductive material, and removing a portion of said conductive material to form said fractal.

Claim 21

The method of claim 11, wherein said substrate is sized to less than one-quarter wavelength at a frequency of radio frequency signals to be coupled to said antenna.

Claim 22

The method of claim 11, wherein at step (a) said substrate is sized to approximately one-eighth wavelength at a frequency of radio frequency signals to be coupled to said antenna.

Claim 23

The method of claim 19, wherein said frequency is approximately 900 MHz.

Claim 26

The method of claim 21, wherein at step (c) said conductive pattern is formed so as to define a fractal.

Claim 27

The method of claim 21, wherein said antenna is fabricated in a manner selected from the group consisting of (i) forming upon an insulator substrate a conductive layer defining said fractal, (ii) forming upon a flexible insulator substrate a conductive layer defining said fractal; (iii) forming upon a semiconductor substrate a layer of conductive material to define said fractal, and (iv) providing a substrate having a surface covered with conductive material, and removing a portion of said conductive material to form said fractal.

Claim 28

The method of claim 21, wherein said substrate is sized to less than one-quarter wavelength at a frequency of radio frequency signals to be coupled to said antenna.

Claim 29

The method of claim 21, wherein at step (a) said substrate is sized to approximately one-eighth wavelength at a frequency of radio frequency signals to be coupled to said antenna.

Claim 30

The method of claim 25, wherein said frequency is approximately 900 MHz.