An Unbalanced Sinuous Antenna for Near-Surface Polarimetric Ground-Penetrating Radar

Abstract

Sinuous antennas are capable of producing ultra-wideband radiation with polarization diversity. This capability makes the sinuous antenna an attractive candidate for UWB polarimetric radar applications. Additionally, the ability of the sinuous antenna to be implemented as a planar structure makes it a good fit for close-in sensing applications such as ground-penetrating radar (GPR). In this work, each arm of a four-port sinuous antenna is operated independently to achieve a quasi-monostatic antenna system capable of polarimetry while separating transmit and receive channels-which is often desirable in GPR systems. The quasi-monostatic configuration of the sinuous antenna reduces system size as well as prevents extreme bistatic angles, which may significantly reduce sensitivity when attempting to detect near-surface targets. A prototype four-port sinuous antenna is fabricated and integrated into a GPR testbed. The polarimetric data obtained with the antenna is then used to distinguish between buried target symmetries.