Low-Profile Spidron Fractal Dipole Antenna with a Ferrite-Loaded Artificial Magnetic Conductor for Manpack Applications

In this paper, a Spidron fractal dipole antenna with a ferrite-loaded artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) is presented. By applying ferrite composed of nickel–zinc with a high permeability value, a compact AMC that operates in the broadband frequency range within the high-frequency/very-high-frequency/ultra-high-frequency (HF/VHF/UHF) bands was designed. A Spidron fractal-shaped dipole antenna with a quasi-self-complementary structure was designed and combined with a miniaturized ferrite-loaded AMC. This allowed the designed AMC-integrated dipole antenna to operate in a wide frequency band, covering the HF/VHF/UHF bands, with low-profile characteristics. A prototype of the proposed Spidron fractal dipole antenna with the AMC was manufactured and measured and found to meet low VSWR (voltage standing wave radios) specifications of <3.5 within the 20–500 MHz bandwidth range. The simulated and measured results are in good agreement. The size of the Spidron fractal dipole antenna with the AMC is 0.03×0.026×0.001λ3 relative to the wavelength of the lowest operating frequency. The received power of the Spidron fractal dipole antenna with the AMC was also measured when it was applied to relatively small applications, such as a manpack in this case.