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On the Relationship Between Fractal Dimension and

the Performance of Multi-Resonant Dipole Antennas
Using Koch Curves
K. J. Vinoy, Member, IEEE, Jose K. Abraham, Member, IEEE, and Vijay K. Varadan, Member, IEEE

AbstractThis paper relates for the first time, multiple resonant

frequencies of fractal element antennas using Koch curves to
their fractal dimension. Dipole and monopole antennas based
fractal Koch curves studied so far have generally been limited
to certain standard configurations of the geometry. It is possible
to generalize the geometry by changing its indentation angle,
to vary its fractal similarity dimension. This variation results
in self-similar geometry which can be generated by a recursive
algorithm. Such a variation is found to have a direct influence
on the input characteristics of dipole antennas. The primary
resonant frequency, the input resistance at this resonance, and
the ratio of first two resonant frequencies, have all been directly
related to the fractal dimension. Curve-fit expressions can also
be obtained for the performance of antennas at their primary
resonance, in terms of fractal iteration and fractal dimension.
The antenna characteristics have been studied using extensive
numerical simulations and are experimentally verified. These
findings underscore the significance of fractal dimension as an
important mathematical property of fractals that can be used
as a design parameter for antennas. The use of these ideas
would not only reduce the computational intensity of optimization
approaches for design of fractal shaped antennas, but also help
antenna designers approach the problem systematically. Design
formulation for antennas based on other fractal geometries can
be similarly obtained after identifying suitable parameters of
variation. This would therefore help analytical design of multiband
and multifunctional antennas using fractal geometries.
Index TermsFractals, multifrequency antennas, wire antennas.

I. INTRODUCTION

VER since the term fractal was coined by Mandelbrott

[1] for a class of seemingly irregular geometries, these
have found diverse applications in several fields of science
and engineering [2][5]. The primary motivation for the use
of fractals in antenna engineering is to extend antenna design
and synthesis concepts beyond Euclidean geometry [6], [7].
Obtaining special antenna characteristics using a fractal distribution of elements is the main objective of the study on
fractal antenna arrays. Apart from arrays, antenna elements
with fractal shapes have also been investigated in recent years
[8]. It is the irregular nature of these geometries that has caught
the attention of antenna designersprimarily as a past-time.
Over the past decade or so, several antenna properties have
Manuscript received August 9, 2002; revised November 4, 2002.
The authors are with the Center for the Engineering of Electronic and
Acoustic Materials and Devices, The Pennsylvania State University, University
Park, PA 16802 USA (e-mail: kjvinoy@ieee.org).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2003.816352

been qualitatively linked to the nature of these geometries.

With the deepening of such an understanding of relationships
between geometric properties and antenna features, a new
class of antennas, called fractal shaped antennas is becoming
popular. Evidently the initial investigations with fractal geometries for antenna applications have been experimental [8], [10].
Fractal geometries such as Koch curves, Minkowski curves,
Sierpinski carpets were investigated by Cohen for various types
of antennas [9].
Fractal trees were also explored for the same reason, and
were found to have multiband characteristics [11]. Self-similarity of these fractal geometries has since been qualitatively
associated with multiband characteristics of antennas using
them. Several self-similar geometries have therefore been
explored to obtain multiband antenna characteristics [12][15].
One fractal geometry pursued by many antenna researchers
is the Koch curve. Several variants of this geometry have
been used as dipole, monopole, loop and patch antennas with
equally diverse performance [9], [16][19]. Historically, Koch
monopoles are among the first antennas based on a fractal
geometry designed as small sized antennas. In addition to being
small, these geometries can lead to multiresonant antenna
characteristics [16].
The advantages of using fractal shaped antenna elements are
manifold. These geometries can lead to antennas with multiband characteristics, often with similar radiation characteristics in these bands. However, thus far the research on using
these geometries, have more or less concentrated on introducing
them into the realm of antenna design, without seriously getting into novel design ideas. There are few exceptions including
the works by Werner et al. [19], [20] antenna properties were
optimized by modifying the geometry using genetic algorithm.
It may however be pointed out that this approach is computationally intensive as it requires extensive evaluation of antenna
properties for each candidate geometry.
In this paper however, it is attempted to identify and exploit
fractal features that contribute to the variation of antenna performance. The fractal dimension is considered an important mathematical property of fractals. As will be explained in Section II,
by changing the indentation angle of the Koch curve geometry
[in other words, iterative function system (IFS)] the fractal dimension changes. An extensive study presented here shows a
direct relationship between the antenna characteristics and this
variation. The geometries studied here may be considered as
a special case of those presented in [19] and [20], since the
present initiator has one line segment less. In order to explain

0018-926X/03$17.00 2003 IEEE

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a set for which the Hausdorff Besicovich dimension strictly exceeds its topological dimension. Every set having noninteger dimension is a fractal [1]. But fractals can have integer dimension.
Alternately, fractal is defined as a set of a fine, irregular structure having at least statistical (if not geometrical) self-similarity,
and its fractal dimension greater than the topological dimension
[22]. An additional feature of most of these sets is that they can
be described recursively.
A. Fractal Dimension

Fig. 1. Geometrical construction of standard Koch curve.

these research findings in perspective, the mathematical basis

for variations in the fractal geometry are presented in the next
section. The results of numerical simulations of using NEC for
antennas with these geometries are described in Section III.
Based on these results, the relationships between the fractal dimension and several antenna properties have been extracted in
Section IV. Some of these results are experimentally validated
in Section V. It has been found that the indentation angle of
Koch iteration may be varied to design multi-resonant antennas
with variable frequency intervals. Radiation characteristics of
dipole and monopole antennas using standard Koch curve geometry has been presented elsewhere [17], [18] and hence will
not be attempted here. It is expected that the use of these ideas
would significantly reduce the computational intensity of optimization approaches for design of antennas using fractal geometries, and would help antenna designers approach the problem
with a markedly different perspective.
II. FRACTAL PROPERTIES AND GENERALIZATION
KOCH CURVES

OF

The term fractal was coined by the French mathematician

B. B. Mandelbrot during 1970s after his pioneering research
on several naturally occurring irregular and fragmented geometries not contained within the realms of conventional
Euclidian geometry [21]. The term has its roots in the Latin
word fractus which is related to the verb fangere (meaning:
to break) [22]. These geometries were generally discarded
as formless, but Mandelbrot discovered that certain special
features can be associated with them. Many of these curves
were recognized well before him, and were often associated
with mathematicians of yesteryears. But Mandelbrots research
was path-breaking: he discovered a common element in many
of these seemingly irregular geometries and formulated theories
based on his findings. Most of these geometries are infinitely
sub-divisible, with each division a copy of the parent. This
special nature of these geometries has led to several interesting
features uncommon with Euclidean geometry.
Mandelbrot defines the term fractal in several ways. These
rely primarily on the definition of their dimension. A fractal is

Dimension of a fractal geometry can be defined in several

ways, most of which often lead to the same number, albeit
not necessarily. Some examples are topological dimension,
Euclidean dimension, self-similarity dimension and Hausdorff
dimension. Many of these are special forms of Mandelbrots
definition of the fractal dimension. However the most easily
understood definition is for self-similarity dimension. To
obtain this value, the geometry is divided into scaled down,
but identical copies of itself. If there are such copies of the
original geometry scaled down by a fraction , the similarity
dimension is defined as follows:
(1)
For example, a square can be divided into four copies of
1/2 scale, nine copies of 1/3 scale, 16 copies of 1/4 scale, or
copies of
scale. Substituting in the above formula, the
dimension of the geometry is ascertained to be 2. The same
approach can be followed for determining the dimension of
several fractal geometries.
B. Generation of Koch Curves
Fractal geometries used in this paper were originally introduced by the Swedish mathematician Helge von Koch in 1904
[21].1 This geometry is significant as this could lead to several
other generalizations. The geometric construction of the basic
curve is shown in Fig. 1. To distinguish this from generalizations introduced later, this geometry will be referred to as the
standard Koch curve for the rest of the discussions. The geometric construction of the standard Koch curve is fairly simple.
One starts with a straight line, called the initiator. This is partitioned into three equal parts, and the segment at the middle is
replaced with two others of the same length. This is the first iterated version of the geometry and is called the generator. The
process is reused in the generation of higher iterations.
It may be recalled that each segment in the first iterated curve
is 1/3 the length of the initiator. There are four such segments.
iterated curve the unfolded (or stretched out) length
Thus for
. This is one important property that would
of the curve is
be useful in the design of antennas of this geometry.
C. IFS for the Standard Koch Curve
An iterative function system (IFS) can be effectively used to
generate the standard Koch curve. A set of affine transformations forms the IFS for its generation [21], [22].
1H. von Koch, sur une courbe continue sans tangente, obtenue par une construction geometrique elementaire, Arkiv for Matematik 1, pp. 681704, 1904.

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(a)

(b)

Fig. 2. Generalized Koch curves of first four iterations with two different indentation angles. The length of subsections for a given iteration is a function of angle
of indentation.

Let us suppose that the initiator (unit length) is placed along

the axis, with its left end at the origin. The transformations to
obtain the segments of the generator are

(10)
(11)

(2)
where the scale factor is angle dependent and is given by
(3)

(4)
(5)

(12)
This ensures the distance between the start and end points
for all iterations is the same. It may be easily verified that this
formulation degenerates to the standard Koch curve for
.
The generator can be obtained similar to (6). These affine
transformations in the generalized case also lead to a self-similar
fractal geometry. The similarity dimension is obtained as

The generator is then obtained as

(6)

(13)

This process can be repeated for all higher iterations of the

geometry. It may be observed that the physical distance between
the start and end points of curves of all iterations is the same.
Scale factors and rotation angles in these transformations are
such that they lead to a self-similar geometry, a fact that is visually apparent from Fig. 1. The similarity dimension of the geometry can, thus, be calculated as

Thus, geometries with varying fractal similarity dimension

can be obtained using this generalization. Examples of the geometries for various iterations with two different angles of indentation are shown in Fig. 2. These show the difference in the
plane filling nature associated with the change in angle, which
may be associated with the change in dimension. The variation
of fractal dimension as a function of the indentation angle is
, the
shown in Fig. 3. It may be observed that for angle
a geomcurve is linear and its dimension is 1, and for
etry of sufficiently large iteration tend to fill a triangle thereby
approaching a dimension of 2.

(7)
This follows from the observation that at each iteration there
are four identical copies of the original geometry that are scaled
down by a factor of 3.

III. NUMERICAL STUDIES FOR KOCH DIPOLE ANTENNAS

D. IFS for Generalizations of Koch Curves

A. Dipole Antenna Model

In the proposed generalizations presented here, the rotation

(indentation) angle is made a variable. This leads to generalization of IFS in the following form:

Dipole antennas with arms consisting of Koch curves of

different indentation angles and fractal iterations are simulated
using a moment method based software G-NEC. A typical
dipole antenna using fourth iteration curves with an indentation
angle of 60 and with the feed located at the center of the
geometry is shown in Fig. 4. Similar geometries with various
fractal iterations and indentation angles are used for the simulation studies presented in subsequent sections. The radius

(8)
(9)

VINOY et al.: RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FRACTAL DIMENSION AND THE PERFORMANCE OF MULTI-RESONANT

Fig. 3. Variation of similarity dimension of the generalized geometry for

various indentation angles.

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Fig. 5. Input impedance of a typical dipole antennas with a standard fourth

iteration Koch curve.

Fig. 4. Configuration of symmetrically fed Koch dipole antenna. fourth

iteration Koch curves with indentation angle  = 60 form each arm of the
antenna. The overall length of all dipole antennas in this paper is 20 cm.

of wire segments constituting the antenna model is 0.1 mm.

The segmentation length used in the NEC model is taken as
approximately 0.5 mm uniform in all cases. For all antennas
studied here, each arm has an end-to-end length of 10 cm
. Resonant frequencies of
dipole antennas using several iterations for geometries with
different angles of indentation are determined by extensive
numerical simulations of similar models.
B. Results of Numerical Simulations
The input and radiation characteristics of this type of antenna
with the standard configuration have been reported previously
[16][18]. It is attempted here to obtain a connection, if any,
between the fractal dimension of the geometry and antenna
characteristics. Since these antennas are small in terms of operational wavelength, their radiation performance is not expected
to change significantly. Hence only the input characteristics
of the antennas are examined in the following discussions.
Numerical results for antennas with geometries with various
indentation angles indicate a reduction in resonant frequencies
by increasing the indentation angle or the fractal iteration. A typical input characteristics is plotted in Fig. 5 for a dipole antenna
with fourth iterated standard Koch curves. The input resistance
at the resonant frequency also changes by these modifications.
, these antennas all degenerate to identical linear
For angle
dipoles with a resonant input resistance of about 72 . As the
indentation angle or the fractal iteration is increased, this value
is reduced significantly.
The antenna input characteristics at higher resonant frequencies are also altered by changes in the indentation angle. These
are plotted in Fig. 6 for the first four iterations of the geometry. It may be noticed that for very small indentation angles,
these antennas behave similar to linear dipoles. However as the
angle is increased, the periodicity of these multiple resonances

Fig. 6. Variation of resonant frequencies of dipole antennas with generalized

Koch curves of various fractal iterations. The resonant frequencies for each
resonance of all cases converge to that on linear dipole when the indentation
angle approaches zero.

is changed. It may be argued that the indentation angle of the

antenna can be changed for appropriate positioning of the resonant frequencies of the antenna. This would be further explored
in the next Section.
IV. FRACTAL FEATURES IN ANTENNA PROPERTIES
In the last two sections it has been established that the fractal
dimension of the generalized Koch curve is dependent on the
indentation angle, and that the antenna properties can be linked
to the indentation angle of the Koch curve geometry. It is now

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TABLE I
PRIMARY (FIRST) RESONANT FREQUENCIES FOR DIPOLE ANTENNAS
WITH KOCH CURVES FOR VARIOUS ITERATIONS OBTAINED BY
NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS

Fig. 8. Input resistance of the generalized Koch dipole antennas of different

fractal iterations plotted against the fractal dimension.

length. In this case, dipoles with an arm length of 10 cm having

a resonant frequency of 720.2 MHz is used as the reference. It
may be recalled that the resonant frequency of a wire antenna is
dependent on the radius of the wire. Hence this normalization is
valid if a corresponding translation in the wire diameter used in
the design.
It is now possible to obtain a design equation for this type of
antenna using the order of fractal iteration and the dimension
of the geometry as input parameters. Using a curve fitting
approach, to fit the parametric curves in Fig. 7, we obtain the
as
primary resonant frequency of a Koch dipole
(14)

Fig. 7. The normalized resonant frequency of generalized Koch dipole

antennas of different fractal iterations.

apparent that these two, when put together lead to significant

results in fractal antenna engineering. The results presented here
establish a direct relationship between the fractal dimensions of
the geometry and the performance of the antennas constructed
using them. These aspects are explored further here.
A. Lowest Resonant Frequency
As shown in Section II, the generalization of Koch curves offers a unique opportunity to study a set of similar fractal curves
with continuously varying fractal dimension. The fractal dimension of the geometry changes from 1 to the maximum value of
2, as the angle is increased from 0 to 90 . In the study on the
performance of dipole antennas using these geometries, it has
been found that input characteristics of the antenna change significantly by these modifications.
First, the primary resonant frequency of antennas with these
generalized Koch curves is considered. The data in Table I is
used to obtain a relationship between change in resonant frequency and variation in fractal dimension. These results are
plotted in Fig. 7. The normalization is done with respect the
resonant frequency of a linear dipole with the same end-to-end

is the resonant frequency of the linear dipole antenna

where
with the same (end-to-end) length as the Koch curve. The above
curve fit expression is valid at or near the wire radius considered. It has been observed that change wire radius leads to significant variation in the input characteristics of the antenna due
to changes in losses, junction reactances, and mutual coupling
between segments. The parameters for the above expression
are limited to fractal-related quantities, and hence the effect of
changing the wire radius is not included here.
Similar approximations can also be applied to obtain the input
resistance at the resonant frequency of the antenna which is
plotted in Fig. 8. It may be recalled that all iterations reduce to
for the indentation angle equals
linear dipole
0. Curve fitting approach is used to obtain an approximate formula for the input resistance as
(15)
is the input resistance of a linear dipole. To conwhere
clude, if the primary objective is to design a small resonant
antenna, the above equations may be used to obtain the geometrical parameters for the desired resonant frequency and
input resistance of the antenna. It may be mentioned that the
above expression does not incorporate the effect of changing
wire radius for reasons mentioned previously.

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TABLE II
GEOMETRIC INTERVAL BETWEEN RESONANT FREQUENCIES OF GENERALIZED
KOCH DIPOLE ANTENNA. ALTHOUGH THE RATIOS ARE DIFFERENT FOR EACH
INTERVAL, THEY REMAIN THE SAME FOR DIFFERENT FRACTAL ITERATIONS

Fig. 9. The ratio of first two resonant frequencies of multi-band Koch dipole
antennas as a function of fractal dimension of the geometry.

Fig. 10.

B. Higher Order Resonances

From Fig. 6 it is quite clear that the period between multiple
resonant frequencies of the antenna differs as the indentation
angle of the geometry is increased. These results are summarized
in Table II [23]. The ratios of successive resonant frequencies
are listed in the table for comparison. It may be recalled that
due to the closeness of the geometry to a linear dipole, these
ratios are not converging to a unique value as with some
other fractal antennas. Although these ratios are different for
each interval, they remain nearly constant for different fractal
iterations of the geometry of the same dimension. The ratios
are plotted against
of first two resonant frequencies
the dimension of the geometry in Fig. 9 to show its nearly
linear relationship to the fractal dimension.
V. EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION
Several dipole antennas with Koch curve geometry have been
fabricated to verify the conclusions derived from the above dis-

Return loss of dipole antennas with various fractal iterations.

cussions [24]. All these antennas have been fabricated on Duroid

,
RO 3003 (Rogers Corp.) dielectric substrate (
) with 1.5 mm thickness. All these antennas have two
arms each with an end-to-end length of 10 cm. The line width
is 2 mm. The input characteristics of these antennas have been
measured using a network analyzer (HP 8510 C). For improving
the current balancing at the input terminals, ferrite beads are
used on the coaxial cable feeding the antenna.
Two sets of antennas have been characterized. The first set
is used to make a comparison between various iterations of
the geometry. The first three iterations of Koch curves and
a linear dipole of the same length are compared here. The
measured return losses for these antennas are plotted in Fig. 10.
These indicate a downward shift in the resonant frequency of
these antennas as the fractal iteration is increased. Similarly,
return loss characteristics for antennas with different indentation
angles are shown in Fig. 11. All geometries in this case are of
second iteration. The normalized primary resonance frequencies
of these antennas are plotted against the fractal dimension in
Fig. 12. The normalization is done with respect to the resonant
frequency of a linear dipole antenna. The experimental results
(marked as spots) are compared with data from numerical
simulations as well as that using (14). The variation here is

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fact that the effect of dielectrics on the reactances of the bends

and corners are not included in the calculations. Similarly, the
ratio of first two resonant frequencies is plotted against the
fractal dimension in Fig. 13.
VI. CONCLUSION

Fig. 11. Return loss of dipole antennas with second iterated Koch curves with
different indentation angles.

Fig. 12. Primary resonant frequencies for dipole antennas with Koch curves
of various indentations.

Fig. 13. Ratio of resonant frequencies for dipole antennas with Koch curves
of various indentations.

understandably different from that in Fig. 6 due to the fact

that this antenna is printed on a dielectric substrate and the
strip width is significantly different. This may be due to the

In this paper, multiple resonant frequencies of a fractal element antenna using Koch curves is related for the first time
to the fractal dimension of the geometry. The similarity dimension of the Koch curve geometry has been varied by changing
the indentation angle used in the recursive IFS. This is found
to have a direct bearing on the input characteristics of dipole
antennas using this geometry. The primary resonant frequency,
the input resistance at this resonance, and the ratio of first two
resonant frequencies, have all been directly related to the fractal
dimension. Curve-fit expressions are also obtained for the performance of the antenna at its primary resonance, in terms of
fractal iteration and fractal dimension. The antenna characteristics have been studied using extensive numerical simulations
and are experimentally verified. A similar approach has been
verified independently in other fractal geometries such as fractal
trees [24]. These findings underline the fact that fractal dimension, being an important mathematical property of fractals, can
be used as a design parameter for antennas. This is consistent
with findings in several other fields of application of fractal
geometries. It is expected that these ideas would significantly
reduce the computational intensity of optimization approaches
for design of fractal shaped antennas, and would help antenna
designers approach the problem more systematically. Furthermore, identifying similar parameters with other known fractal
geometries would also help analytical design of multiband and
multifunctional antennas for modern wireless applications.
REFERENCES
[1] B. B. Madelbrot, The Fractal Geometry of Nature. New York:
Freeman, 1983.
[2] H.-O. Peitgen, J. M. Henriques, and L. F. Penedo, Eds., Fractals in
the Fundamental and Applied Sciences. Amsterdam: North Holland,
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[3] G. P. Cherepanov, A. S. Balankin, and V. S. Ivanova, Fractal fracture
mechanics, Eng. Fracture Mechan., vol. 51, pp. 9971033, 1995.
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[6] D. H. Werner, R. L. Haupt, and P. L. Werner, Fractal antenna engineering: the theory and design of fractal antenna arrays, IEEE Antennas
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[8] C. Puente, J. Romeu, and A. Cardama, Fractal-shaped antennas, in
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[9] N. Cohen, Fractal antenna applications in wireless telecommunications, in Proc. of Electronics Industries Forum of New England, 1997,
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[10] C. Puente, R. Pous, J. Romeu, and X. Garcia, Antennas Fractales o
Multifractales, European Patent, ES 2 112 163, Mar. 16, 1998.
[11] C. Puente, J. Claret, F. Sagues, J. Romeu, M. Q. Lopez-Salvans, and R.
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[12] C. Puente, J. Romeu, R. Bartoleme, and R. Pous, Fractal multiband

antenna based on Sierpinski gasket, Electron. Lett., vol. 32, pp. 12,
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[13] D. H. Werner, A. R.A. Rubio Bretones, and B. R. Long, Radiation characteristics of thin-wire ternary fractal trees, Electron. Lett., vol. 35, pp.
609610, 1999.
[14] M. Sindou, G. Ablart, and C. Sourdois, Multiband and wideband properties of printed fractal branched antennas, Electron. Lett., vol. 35, pp.
181182, 1999.
[15] X. Liang and M. Y. W. Chia, Multiband characteristics of two fractal
antennas, Microw. Opt. Technol. Lett., vol. 23, pp. 242245, 1999.
[16] C. Puente-Baliarda, J. Romeu, R. Pous, J. Ramis, and A. Hijazo, Small
but long Koch fractal monopole, Electron. Lett., vol. 34, pp. 910, 1998.
[17] C. P. Baliarda, J. Romeu, and A. Cardama, The Koch monopole: a
small fractal antenna, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. 48, pp.
17731781, Nov. 2000.
[18] J. P. Glanvittorio and Y. Rahmaat-Samii, Fractal element antennas:
a compilations of configurations with novel characteristics, in Proc.
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[19] D. H. Werner, P. L. Werner, and K. H. Church, Genetically engineered
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wireless applications, Ph.D. dissertation, Pennsylvania State Univ.,
University Park, 2002.

K. J. Vinoy (M02) received the Bachelors degree

from the University of Kerala, Kerala, India, the
Masters degree from Cochin University of Science
and Technology, Cochin, India, and the Ph.D. degree
from the Pennsylvania State University, University
Park, in 1990, 1993, and 2002, respectively.
From 1994 to 1998 he worked in various positions
at the National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore,
India, and was attached to the computational electromagnetics group there. He was a Research Assistant
at the Center for the Engineering of Electronic and
Acoustic Materials and Devices (CEEAMD) at the Pennsylvania State University, from 1999 to 2002, where he is continuing Postdoctoral research. He has
published over 25 papers in technical journals and conferences and is an author
of Radar Absorbing Materials: From Theory to Design and Characterization,
(Boston, MA: Kluwer, 1996) and RF MEMS and their Applications (London,
U.K.: Wiley, 2002). He also has one U.S. patent awarded. His research interests include fractal shaped antennas, micromachined antennas, RF MEMS and
computational electromagnetics.

2303

Jose K. Abraham (M90) received the Ph.D. degree

from Cochin University of Science and Technology,
Cochin, India in 1989.
From 1990 to 1997, he worked as a Lecturer at
Cochin University of Science and Technology, and
was involved with the development of superconducting antennas, radar absorbing materials and
wideband microstrip antennas. He joined the Center
for the Engineering of Electronic and Acoustic
Materials at Pennsylvania State University in 1997,
where he is currently an Assistant Professor in the
Engineering Science and Mechanics Department. He has published 100 papers
in technical journals and conferences and published a book. He holds two
patents. His current research interests include RF MEMS, microwave material
characterization, RF wireless sensors, and smart antennas.

Vijay K. Varadan (M82) received the Ph.D. degree

from Northwestern University in 1974.
After serving on the faculty of Cornell University
and Ohio State University, he joined the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, in 1983
where he is currently an Alumni Distinguished
Professor of engineering science and electrical
engineering. He is the Director of the Center
for the Engineering of Electronic and Acoustic
Materials and Devices. The Center is supported
by industries around the world and government
agencies. Dr. Varadan is the Editor of the Wave-Material Interaction Journal
and the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Smart Materials and Structures.
He is involved in all aspects of wave-material interaction, optoelectronics,
microelectronics, photonics, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), smart
materials and structures, sonar-, radar-, microwave-, and optically absorbing
composite media, FSS, nanotechnology, carbon nanotubes, fuel cells and
button cell batteries, EMI, RFI, EMP and EMF shielding materials and
piezoelectric, chiral, ferrite, and polymer composites and conducting polymers,
and UV conformal coatings, tunable ceramics materials and substrates, and
electronically steerable antennas. He has published more than 400 journal
and 300 proceedings papers and nine books. He has 10 patents pertinent to
conducting polymers, smart structures and smart antennas and phase shifters.
His patent on carbon nanotubes, fuel cell and microbatteries is pending.
His research interest is in the design and development of various electronic,
acoustic and structural composites and devices including sensors, transducers,
microwave, acoustic and ultrasonic wave absorbers and filters, and smart wall
paper for noise absorption and blocking. He is also interested in microwave
and ultrasonic experiments to measure the dielectric, magnetic, mechanical
and optical properties of composites.