Circularly polarized micro-strip antenna with fractal trees loaded ground plane.

New designs of the circularly polarized micro-strip antennas (CPMSAs) based on tree fractal geometries are proposed, examined experimentally, and compared. The excellent circularly polarized (CP) radiation with minimum axial ratio (AR) of 0.26 dB is achieved by optimization of the key parameters (angle, length, and width) of the fractal trees etched on the ground plane. Parametric study revealed that the fractal tree defected ground structures (FTDGS) are responsible for satisfying the condition of CP operation. The micro-strip antennas with third iterative FTDGS and modified third iterative FTDGS are fabricated on FR4 substrate. The measured 10-dB return loss and 3-dB AR are 99 MHz (2.407–2.506 GHz) and 12 MHz (2.443–2.455 GHz), respectively, with stable gain of 4.52 dBic at 2.45 GHz, for third iterative FTDGS antenna. For modified third iterative FTDGS antenna, measured 10-dB return loss and 3-dB AR are 109 MHz (2.354–2.463 GHz) and 26 MHz (2.386–2.412 GHz), respectively, with gain about 4.62 dBic in the vicinity of center frequency 2.4 GHz. The proposed designs can be good candidates for the unlicensed 2.45 GHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) band applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]