Compact wideband hybrid fractal antenna loaded on AMC reflector with enhanced gain for hybrid wireless cellular networks

•In this research work, a wideband hybrid fractal monopole antenna loaded with an (AMC) reflector is proposed for gain enhancement. The hybrid antenna topology is assisted with a combination of Sierpinski triangle and Van Koch curve, which achieves compactness and miniaturization in design configuration.•With backed AMC reflector, the antenna assists excellent uni-directional radiation characteristics aiming for hybrid wireless networks and is validated through numerical equations, surface current study and radiation mechanism.•Proposed antenna design with AMC reflector has been showcased with surface current analysis describing reproducibility of incident waves, coupling mechanism, reflection magnitude and 0-degree reflection phases, which compensate deficiencies in traditional PEC and PMC reflectors.•The basic intuition of proposed research work highlights in a compact design, low-profile AMC loaded reflector, wide IBW, high gain with good boresight radiation characteristics, low X-pol., reduction in back lobe radiation, high radiation efficiency, E-and H-plane radiation diversity.•The authors have introduced a hybrid fractal antenna topology with fractal AMC reflector to assign heterogeneous antenna configurations in a homogeneous design entity involving fractal design traits like scaling, compression, rotation and translation. A wideband hybrid fractal monopole antenna loaded with artifical magnetic conductor (AMC) is proposed. Using a hybrid fractal generator, the monopole antenna achieves self-similarity compactness, reduced size and good wideband performances. The ground is semi-elliptic and has defected steps aiming to improve impedance matching and X-pol. reduction. The AMC reflector has 3× 3 array of cesaro shaped unit cells looped in a square metallic conductor. The AMC enhances radiation gain with back-lobe reduction. The AMC unit cell produce a 00 phase reflection at fAMC = 4.5 GHz and then loaded to optimize antenna performance. To validate the design, a prototype antenna is fabricated and measured. The antenna operates from (3.7–7.0) GHz with 61.68% impedance bandwidth, realized gain of (8.7–13.8) dBi, and radiation efficiency > 82.5%. The proposed antenna leverages on compactness, low-profile AMC height and good boresight radiation gain, which shows its potential for hybrid wireless cellular networks.