Compact antipodal vivaldi antenna for UWB applications

Abstract

A novel compact end-fire antipodal Vivaldi antenna is proposed for ultra-wideband (UWB) applications such as in radars, microwave imaging and in high data rate wireless systems. To make the antenna compact, a bending feed line structure and sinusoidal modulated Gaussian tapered slot is used. The proposed antenna has a reflection coefficient of less than -10 dB from 2 GHz to more than 12 GHz (more than 166% fractional bandwidth). The radiation characteristics show an end-fire radiation pattern in the operating frequency band with peak realised gain values in the range of 1.5-5.2 dBi. Time domain analysis shows that the antenna has good pulse handling capability with a high system fidelity factor.