Improvement of fractal antenna parameters by metamaterials

Materials that are not found in nature, which can be artificially designed and produced for the desired purpose are called Metamaterials (MTM). In recent years, studies on different fields of application of MTMs such as cloaking, super lenses, antennas, absorber and sensors have increased significantly. Reducing the antenna size and improving its performance are some of the antenna applications of MTMs. In this study, fractal antennas, which are known to be more advantageous than conventional antennas, are preferred as wave emitting elements. In this thesis, a simulation program based on Finite Integration Technique is used. With the help of simulation program, the fractal antenna consisting of circular shapes with a ratio constant of 0.65 is designed and optimized in size. In this study, two different MTM structures, rhombus and elliptic, were designed. In the first design, the unit cells consisting of the rhombic patch are arranged on the FR4 in the form of a 2x4 array. The overall size of each sample is 38x38 mm. In the second design, elliptical shapes with identical dimensions of cells are replaced by a rhombus patch. The values of effective dielectric constant (ε), effective magnetic permeability (μ) and refractive index (n) of the structure are calculated using the parameter values of S11 and S21 obtained from the simulation of two MTM structures and these values are found to be negative at the working frequency. A different number of MTM structures consisting of 2x4 units of cells are placed on the antenna at an angle of 90 degrees and the effects of these structures on the S11 value, directivity and gain of the antenna are investigated. The 2 and 3 dimensional radiation patterns of the fractal antenna are also examined. Antenna and MTM structures are fabricated in the laboratory and measurements are made by using PNA L N5234A Network Analyzer. As a result, numerical and experimental results are compared with each other by considering literature results. The results show that the simulation results and experimental results are in good agreement. In addition, it is observed that MTM structures increased antenna directivity, gain, efficiency, bandwidth, decreased S11 value and radiation angle width.