Hilbert curve fractal antenna: A small resonant antenna for VHF/UHF applications

The usefulness of fractal Hilbert curves in antenna geometry is explored he re for the first time. Apart from being simple and self-similar, these curv es have the additional property of approximately filling a plane. These pro perties are exploited in realizing a "small" resonant antenna. This approac h has resulted in an antenna size smaller than lambda /10 and still resonan t, with performance comparable to a dipole whose resonant length is close t o lambda /2. Numerical predictions of the input impedance of the antenna ha ve bern compared with experiments. The effect of additional fractal iterati ons on the reduction of the resonant frequency has been studied. The radiat ion characteristics of the antenna at the resonant frequencies provided sho w that this is very similar to the dipole characteristics. (C) 2001 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc.