A SLOTTED UWB ANTIPODAL VIVALDI ANTENNA FOR MICROWAVE IMAGING APPLICATIONS

This paper presents the design of an ultra-wideband (UWB) antipodal Vivaldi antenna (APVA) for radar and microwave imaging applications. A slotted APVA design is introduced to improve the low-end bandwidth limitation frequencies as well as to enhance the gain and directivity of the antenna. The optimizations of the design offer good results by using a cost-effective substrate, fiberglass reinforced grade 4 (FR4) material. The regular APVA antenna design only presents average results of gain (4–6 dBi) and directivity (4–7 dB). However, the addition of slots on the edges of antenna is able to increase the peak value of gain and directivity up to 73.65% with 7.64 dBi and 8.92 dB, respectively. Besides, the radiation pattern of the antenna is also improved by using the slotted design where the main lobe level is larger than regular APVA design. Both antennas presented in this paper are designed in compact size of 42.8mm × 57.3 mm. The antennas are also designed to operate within the frequency range of 3.6 GHz to 10 GHz frequency.

[1]  E. Gazit,et al.  Improved design of the Vivaldi antenna , 1988 .

[2]  S. Wang,et al.  Analysis of Ultra Wideband Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna Design , 2007, 2007 Loughborough Antennas and Propagation Conference.

[3]  Ibrahim Elshafiey,et al.  Development of UWB Vivaldi antenna for microwave imaging , 2013, 2013 Saudi International Electronics, Communications and Photonics Conference.

[4]  Mohammad Tariqul Islam,et al.  Electromagnetic Performances Analysis of an Ultra-wideband and Flexible Material Antenna in Microwave Breast Imaging: To Implement A Wearable Medical Bra , 2016, Scientific Reports.

[5]  A. Gharsallah,et al.  Antipodal Vivaldi antenna array with high gain and reduced mutual coupling for UWB applications , 2015, 2015 16th International Conference on Sciences and Techniques of Automatic Control and Computer Engineering (STA).

[6]  Amin Abbosh,et al.  Utilizing Symmetry of Planar Ultra-Wideband Antennas for Size Reduction and Enhanced Performance , 2015, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine.

[7]  Zhenghe Feng,et al.  Analysis and design of tapered slot antenna for ultra-wideband applications , 2009 .

[8]  Zengrui Li,et al.  A modified UWB antipodal Vivaldi antenna with improved radiation characteristics , 2015, 2015 IEEE 6th International Symposium on Microwave, Antenna, Propagation, and EMC Technologies (MAPE).

[9]  E. de Lera Acedo,et al.  Study and Design of a Differentially-Fed Tapered Slot Antenna Array , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[10]  Constantine A. Balanis,et al.  Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design , 1982 .

[11]  Raimi Dewan,et al.  Reconfigurable wideband and narrowband tapered slot Vivaldi antenna with ring slot pairs , 2013 .

[12]  Mehmet Rasit Yuce,et al.  Ultra-Wideband and 60 GHz Communications for Biomedical Applications , 2013 .

[13]  Yuan-hai Yu,et al.  Research of fractal technology in the design of multi-frequency antenna , 2011, 2011 China-Japan Joint Microwave Conference.

[14]  P. J. Gibson.  The Vivaldi Aerial , 1979, 1979 9th European Microwave Conference.

[15]  Shijie Lin,et al.  Design of a wideband dual-polarized linearly tapered slot antenna , 2011, 2011 International Conference on Electronics, Communications and Control (ICECC).

[16]  Shouyuan Shi,et al.  Modified Compact Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna for 4–50-GHz UWB Application , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[17]  G. K. Pandey,et al.  High Gain Vivaldi Antenna for Radar and Microwave Imaging Applications , 2014 .

[18]  Sohaib Maalik,et al.  Antenna design for UWB radar detection application , 2010 .

[19]  Guangming Wang,et al.  Bandwidth Enhancement of a Microstrip-Line-Fed Printed Wide-Slot Antenna With a Fractal-Shaped Slot , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[20]  Peng Fei,et al.  A Miniaturized Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna With Improved Radiation Characteristics , 2011, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters.