A novel wideband VHF antenna for impulse ground penetrating radar systems

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a novel wideband VHF antenna operating at central frequency of 200 MHz for impulse ground penetrating radar (GPR) systems. As operating at the low frequency, impulse GPR systems can work well at the depth to 5 m. The proposed bow-tie antenna has been created based on the Lemniscate curve. This structure helps the antenna achieve better performance than conventional bow-tie antennas. In the paper, we also propose a wideband balanced-to-unbalanced (balun) transformation line to feed our antenna. The balun has good performance and matching impedance. The antenna is implemented in FR4 substrate and copper patch. Based on design, simulation, and implementation results, it has been shown that our proposed antenna has a good matched impedance, stable radiation patterns, and constant gain. Thus, it can be thoroughly applied to GPR systems in the future. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014.