Homemade Sierpinski Gasket Fractal Wifi Antenna
I have been hearing about fractal antennas for a little while and wanted to try making my own fractal antenna to try out the concept. Some of the benefits promoted in research papers are the ability of fractal antennas to receive multiband rf signals, and the ability to shrink the size of the antenna while maintaining signal strength. I decided to create a prototype fractal antenna based upon the Sierpinski Gasket fractal pattern.
This antenna is a prototype antenna. I am posting this article on my blog for the benefit of other antenna building enthusiasts. There is still a lot of work required to finish tuning and improving the design. If you are looking for a general purpose WiFi antenna, either a 2.4 GHz patch or grid antenna are simple and effective solutions for most wireless links. I can recommend L-com as a quality supplier of traditional wireless antennas.
I designed my fractal antenna to be compatible with my Linksys WRT54GS 802.11g router. This was my first test of the fractal antenna concept and I learned a lot. The antenna has a low gain design and through preliminary testing on a 1/2 km WiFi link with a few trees in the path I achieved a reliable link. There is certainly lots of room for improvement through more testing, computer simulation, and better design but fractal antennas do work.
You can download a PDF version of the antenna pattern I used.
Reference Materials
Here are three PDFs that were helpful when I created my fractal antenna:
ECE416 Project Report
Design and Implementation of Compact Microstrip Fractal Antennas (Pulled from WaybackMachine Archive)
by Paul Simedrea
www.imaging.robarts.ca/~simedrea/paul-416-report.pdf (original Link Broken)
Sierpinski Gasket Patch And Monopole Fractal Antenna
By Abd Shukur Bin Ja’afar
http://eprints.utm.my/4429/1/AbdShukurJaafarKPFKE2005TTT.pdf
Fractal Antennas
by Philip Felber
www.ece.iit.edu/~pfelber/fractalantennas.pdf
My prototype fractal antenna
Fractal Antenna with RP-TNC Connector
Prototype fractal antenna design with coupling patch
The antenna design was laser printed on toner transfer paper.
The laser printed design was transferred onto the printed circuit board using a laminator.
Finished stage 1 of the toner transfer process.
Using a laminator to apply green trf foil to fill in toner gaps.
Preparing to etch the PCB.
Masking the backside of the PCB with electrical tape.
Etching the PCB using ferric chloride and the direct etch method.
Finished etched board with trf coating remaining on the PCB.
Fractal PCB antenna after an acetone wipedown to remove green trf coating.
Drilling the antenna connector hole.
PCB Antenna and a harvested RP-TNC connector.
Linksys RP-TNC Antenna Connector
Water washable flux droplet applied to PCB prior to soldering.
Soldering the antenna connector cable on the PCB.
Soldering the frontside wire for the antenna connector.
Soldering the antenna connector wire to the PCB groundplane.
Lastly, I finished the antenna by securing the RP-TNC connector to the antenna with hot glue.
25 Responses to “Homemade Sierpinski Gasket Fractal Wifi Antenna”
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what substrate that you use, is there epoxy or something?
can you tell me the dimension formula of antenna sierpinski gasket if i use another substrate.. i can't find it..
why you make something like feed line, but you use probe coaxial for excitation. what is the purpose?
thanks a lot
what substrate that you use, is there epoxy or something?
I used FR4 PCB material which has a layer of copper bonded to a substrate of fibreglass to create the antenna.
why you make something like feed line, but you use probe coaxial for excitation. what is the purpose?
I am a hobbyist so I still have a lot to learn about antenna design. This was my first attempt at a fractal antenna. I will be making more design variations in the future to compare the results.
Here are three PDFs that might help you:
Sierpinski Gasket Patch And Monopole Fractal Antenna
By Abd Shukur Bin Ja’afar
http://eprints.utm.my/4429/1/AbdShukurJaafarKPFKE2005TTT.pdf
Fractal Antennas
by Philip Felber
http://www.ece.iit.edu/~pfelber/fractalantennas.pdf
ECE416 Project Report:
Design and Implementation of Compact Microstrip Fractal Antennas (Pulled from WaybackMachine Archive)
by Paul Simedrea
http://www.imaging.robarts.ca/~simedrea/paul-416-report.pdf (original Link Broken)
Regards,
Andrew
oh that's very useful..
thank you very much,,
if i have something problem again, maybe i will ask you again
regards,
Iqbal
What are the exact dimensions of the main triangle?
and what are the dimensions of FR4 substrate?
Thanks!
Hi Aakash.
The copper triangle was 2.7 inches wide by 2.3 inches high. The FR4 fiberglass backing substrate was 4.1 inches by 4.1 inches. This was my first attempt at making a fractal antenna so I'm sure there is lots of room for improvement in the design.
Here is a PDF version of my first fractal antenna design:
Andrew_Hazelden's_Serpinski_Antenna.pdf
I would love to hear from anyone if they come up with improvements after testing the design.
Thnx a lot!!
working on it if something better comes will let u know
Regards
Aakash
Does this really work !!!!
Hi Tarek.
The Sierpinski Gasket Fractal Antenna does work but it is just the first prototype version. The design hasn't been tuned with a spectrum analyzer yet so there is a lot of room for improvement. I would only recommend this antenna design if you are into building antennas for fun.
If you are looking for a high performance WiFi antenna a regular 2.4 GHz patch antenna is a good choice.
Hi Andrew how are you? I want to know the complete dimensions of this wifi antenna because i want to implement it. How i can use it in my home?
thnxxxxxx
Hi again...I also want to know that, should I direct print the prototype and do further procedure or should I use any software like ORCAD or HFSS to implement the layout?????
Please reply soon....
Thanks
Hi. I am trying to use fractal antennas for vehicles for DAB reception is that possible?
Hi Hasan.
I don't personally have any experience with DAB equipment. A traditional antenna would probably be the easiest thing to use with DAB gear if you are looking for a reliable turn-key solution.
It should be possible to use a fractal antenna with a DAB radio but would require research and experimentation to come up with a quality design. You would need to tune the design to work best with the specific frequencies you are trying to receive.
Hi Andrew....
I Looked at this set-up.... http://www.poyntingdirect.co.za/pWBS2400/WiFi-Base-Station---24-GHz.aspx and really would like to have something or similar to this..... have you any design ideas similar or point me to where I can find info.... these prices is really way out of budget... let me know
How does the beamforming technology work....?
Nizam,
The link you provided to the Wavion WBS-2400 WiFi Base Station is pretty neat. I find it interesting how they took the idea of antenna diversity to the next level with beamforming technology. I have seen beamforming used for things like marine based hydrophone arrays but it is really innovative for RF applications. The only area where this technology might have some trouble is when using high-gain 24 DBi grid antennas for long shot wireless links.
Thank you.
What is the thickness of the material used by you FR4?
Thanks in advance
I have such a situation. To the access point trees and foliage, there is no direct line of sight (tried different antenna did not help. I would like to repeat your results.
I am interested in the thickness of the material that was used and the exact size). Pre bologdaren Vladimir
Vladmir,
Your best bet for a good wifi link through lots of trees and foliage is to get a 700 MHz or 900 MHz access point. The lower frequency WiFi signals aren't absorbed like standard 2.4GHz signals are. I have purchased an embedded WiFi radio from Ubiquiti Networks and found they make quality gear.
Hi! Yes agree, excellent equipment but we can not because you want to get a license for veschanieya 900 MHz. Allowed to use the current 2.4 GHz and then at a power of 250 milivat. Not for nothing did as asked antenna.
Since the spring did link to the 500 meters at rostoyanii branches (without leaves)
D-Link 300 flashed dd-wrt and was made a homemade antenna Bi Quad, not tested on the level of the signal (.
The next day the whole link was lost (I think that a weak signal (antenna)
So you ask how you did and what antenna parameters.
interested in the size, thickness of the material.
Thanks in advance, Vladimir
Vladmir,
If you are planning on building your own fractal antenna make sure to read the three PDF files I listed at the top of my blog post for reference. They are all very informative. When I created my first prototype fractal antenna I used the fibreglass PCB material I had on hand. It think it was a FR4 1/16" copper clad PCB board.
Hello Andrew,
Have you by any chance tried to simulate your antenna in a program like NEC or Zeland IE3D?
Just curious,
Marcus
Marcus,
I have never used electromagnetic simulation software before. What RF simulation software would you recommend for an electronics hobbyist interested in antenna design?
Regards,
Andrew
This may give you ideas : http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=107457
Hi Anglophony.
Thanks for sending me the link to 4nec2 website. I really appreciate you taking the time to let me know about this program! This software looks like it will be able to help improve the fractal antenna's performance.
When I get a spare moment I will have to start learning how to use the 4nec2 antenna modeling program.
Regards,
Andrew