Design of compact Vivaldi antenna arrays for UWB see through wall applications

Abstract

Two different types of Vivaldi antenna arrays have been designed for UWB see through wall applications. The first is a 16 × 1 antipodal Vivaldi antenna covering 8-12 GHz, and the second is an 8 × 1 tapered slot antenna for 2-4 GHz frequency range. The array elements are optimized to have a compact size and almost constant gain with frequency. Wilkinson power dividers were designed and fabricated to compose the feed network for the Vivaldi antenna arrays. Measured results of the manufactured antipodal and tapered slot Vivaldi antenna arrays are in excellent agreement with the simulated ones, with a gain of more than 13 dBi and 12 dBi respectively within their respective operating band. The first array is geared towards see through dry wall with high resolution, while the second is designed at lower frequencies to allow see through concrete wall applications. Full arrays were manufactured and connected to multi-throw switches and have been utilized as part of synthetic aperture radar.