A RECONFIGURABLE U-KOCH MICROSTRIP ANTENNA FOR WIRELESS APPLICATIONS

Abstract

In this paper, a low-cost multiband printed-circuit-board (PCB) antenna that employs Koch fractal geometry and tunability is demonstrated. The antenna is fabricated on a 1.6mm-thick FR4- epoxy substrate with dimensions 4cm £ 4.5cm, is microstrip-line fed and has a partial ground plane ∞ushed with the feed line. The proposed antenna is simulated using the Finite-Element Method for three difierent switching cases and the return loss is measured for each case. It is shown that the antenna can cover the bands of several applications including 3G, WiFi, WiMAX as well as a portion of the UWB range. The radiation patterns are satisfactorily omnidirectional across the antenna's operation bands.