Design of compact Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna on

250 µm and 500 µm Polycarbonate over wide

frequency range
Nisha Verma* Priyanka Dalal Pratul Nijhawan
Deptt of Electronics and Deptt of Electronics and School of Material Science and
Communication Engineering communication Engineering Nanotechnology
Guru Jambheshwar University of Guru Jambheshwar University of National Institute of Technology
Science and Technology Science and Technology Kurukshetra
Hisar, Haryana, India Hisar, Haryana, India Kurukshetra, Haryana, India
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Corresponding author*

Abstract— A compact novel corrugation of antipodal good return loss, high fidelity factor and minimal signal
Vivaldi antenna has been designed for 8-75 GHz which works distortion. In recent literature, several AVA have been
for radar frequency bands i.e. X band, Ku band, K band, Ka proposed for various applications. In [3], an AVA has been
band, Q band and V band. It is designed over flexible designed by using metal background plane which
polycarbonate substrate having radiating copper metallic contributes in increasing forward radiation and thus
patch. The decreasing amplitude corrugations which are increasing gain. Using loading structures helps in improving
designed in exponential manner are cut at front and back side the low frequency performance of Vivaldi antennas [4].
of the antenna. The antenna exhibits good front to back ratio
Compact AVAs are proposed by using different methods to
and peak realized gain. The peak realized gain ranges from 5
improve the overall performance [4-6,8]. An AVA is made
dBi to 12.7 dBi for 250 µm thickness and it ranges from 2.18
dBi to 11.73 dBi for 500 µm thickness. The antenna exhibits
compact by introducing bending feed line structure due to
good radiation characteristics over the designed frequency which antenna structure provides good pulse handling
range in terms of peak realized gain, front to back ratio as well capability [5]. The application of dielectric lens in balanced
as 3D radiation plots with that being better for 250 µm antenna AVA removes tilted beam in upper frequency ranges
as compared to 500 µm antenna. The antenna with 250 µm making it better than conventional balanced antipodal
thickness gives unidirectional radiation pattern almost Vivaldi antenna [7]. In [19] the antenna designed by authors
covering the entire designed frequency range. The optimization can be used for seeing through the wall. The proposed
of parameters is done in such manner so that it will achieve antenna is flexible in nature and have corrugation cut on its
overall good performance. structure and it has high gain and good radiation efficiency.
To improve the performance of the antenna, silver metal
Keywords— flexible antipodal Vivaldi antenna, radar portions which are circular in shape are applied between the
frequency bands, exponentially decreasing corrugations, spacing of the grating elements. Several approaches of
unidirectional radiation antenna designing are taken to achieve low cross
polarization levels [8,13]. The presented antenna is designed
I. INTRODUCTION using two different substrates FR4 and Rogers RO3006 and
In 2002, US Federal Communication Commission the antenna has low cross polarization levels and operating
(FCC) have permitted frequency band 3.1-10.6 GHz for the frequency range is 3.1-10.6 GHz [8].
application of commercial communication, it has attracted In this paper, a modified compact flexible antenna is
attention towards UWB applications. The data rate of UWB designed on polycarbonate (PC) substrate using two
communication systems is high and extremely low power thicknesses i.e. 250 µm and 500 µm. The PC material has
spectral density. For consumer electronics applications good tensile strength and flexibility. It can work on the
UWB antenna design should have wide impedance temperature range which varies from -40 ℃ to 130 ℃. This
matching, radiation stability, low profile, compact size and working temperature range allows the antenna to be
low cost. According to FCC spectral mask, the maximum employed in hot deserts as well as cold mountains. The
power available to the antenna should be in order of 0.5mW scratch resistance of PC is low whereas its impact resistance
because over a large frequency band, the energy of UWB is high. The main application of PC is in making electronic
signals has been spread. components and construction materials. The proposed
antenna operates in X band (8-12 GHz), Ku band (12-18
In 1979 Gibson proposed first ever Vivaldi antenna [1].
GHz), K band (18-27 GHz), Ka band (27-40 GHz), Q band
Vivaldi antennas are planar antennas, able to fit in smaller
(40-60 GHz) and V band (50-70 GHz). Its wide operating
areas and are usually ultra wideband antennas. These
frequency range makes it compatible for short range
antennas are simple in structure and have directional
tracking, high and very high resolution mapping, missile
radiation pattern and wide bandwidth. Vivaldi antennas have
guidance, airport surveillance and military communications.
been extensively used in various communication
All the simulation is done on Computer Simulation
applications. Vivaldi antennas are divided into three main
Technology Microwave Studio (CST-MWS) which is based
categories: co-planar Vivaldi antenna, antipodal Vivaldi
on Finite Integration technique.
antenna and balanced antipodal Vivaldi antenna. The
antipodal Vivaldi antenna (AVA) was proposed by Gazit in
[2] which can work on wide frequency range. It has many
advantages over other antennas such as broad bandwidth,
 II. ANTENNA DESIGN (4)
Fig. 1 shows the structure of modified compact antipodal
Vivaldi antenna which is designed for two thicknesses i.e.
250 µm and 500 µm. The substrate used for antenna (5)
designing is polycarbonate (PC) whose dielectric constant is
2.9 and loss tangent is 0.01 and antenna is fed through
microstrip line. (6)

In the above equations, the value of d is taken 0.3 and j

extends from 0 to aperture length ‘al’ for curve f1 and it
extends from 0 to al/4 for curve f2 and ‘r1’ is rate of increase
of exponential curve over al and ‘r2’ is rate of increase of
exponential curve over al/4. The values of ‘a1’ is -2.5 mm
and ‘b1’ is -1.95 mm. The curves are optimized and the other
structure is taken arbitrary for achieving 50 Ω impedance
matching.
The corrugations are cut in exponentially decreasing
manner with maximum length of ‘Lcorr’, width of ‘Wcorr’ and
spacing between the corrugations is ‘Scorr’ as per equation (7).
The dimensions of the antenna are optimized to achieve 50 Ω
impedance matching.

(7)

where ‘Ccorr’ is the corrugation cuts and ‘ri’ varies from 0

to 18.

TABLE I. OPTIMIZED SIMULATED PARAMETERS VALUES OF

Fig. 1. Structure of compact modified AVA MODIFIED AVA

The copper of thickness of 35 µm is deposited on Parameters Values (in mm)

polycarbonate substrate. The dimensions of two designed
antennas are 44 x 57.23 x 0.25 mm3 and 44 x 57.23 x 0.5 Length of antenna, La 44
mm3. The microstrip line has been designed in such a way
Microstrip line length, Ml 25.5
that Ml and Mw are optimized for 50 Ω impedance matching.
While considering microstrip width, the upper as well as Substrate width, Wa 57.23
lower ends of the microstrip line along its width are chosen
such that a is at upper end and b is at lower end. The AVA is Length of corrugations, Lcorr 16
designed in such a way that it has two exponential curves;
one having its origin at a distance ‘a’ from the origin of Width of corrugations, Wcorr 0.97
global co-ordinate system of CST Microwave Studio and
Spacing between corrugations, 0.57
other having distance ‘b’ lower than that of co-ordinate Scorr
system. The values of ‘a’ and ‘b’ are 1.6 mm and 2.2 mm
respectively. The width of microstrip is (a-b) and the length Microstrip line width, Mw 0.6 (For 0.25 mm PC), 1.34 (For
of microstrip is chosen in a way that it extends exponentially 0.5 mm PC)
to the bottom end of the antenna. The front and back side
etching is done in same manner.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The optimized equations for curves of front side of the
antenna are given below: A. REFLECTION COFFICIENT (S11) VS FREQUENCY
PLOT
(1)

(2)

The optimized equations for curves of back side of

the antenna are given below:

(3)
Fig. 2. Simulated Reflection Coefficient v/s Frequency
 The reflection coefficient determines the reflected 250 µm thickness is better than that of antenna with greater
power from antenna. The comparison of variations in thickness.
reflection coefficient with respect to frequency for 250 µm
and 500 µm PC is shown in Fig. 2. The above figure shows C. FRONT TO BACK RATIO VS FREQUENCY PLOT
that the minimum S11 is -53.21 dB at 73.22 GHz frequency
and maximum S11 is -8.86 dB at 8.514 GHz frequency for
250 µm PC. The minimum S11 is -55.38 dB at 40.717 GHz
frequency and maximum S11 is -6.65 dB at 8.41 GHz
frequency for 500 µm PC.
The frequencies for which reflection coefficient is below
-10 dB means that the antenna delivers 90% of power at
output and frequency range for which S11<-10 dB signifies -
10 dB impedance bandwidth of antenna. The antenna
provides -3 dB bandwidth for frequencies where S11 is less
than -3 dB.
As observed from Fig. 2, for 250µm designed antenna, -
10 dB as well as -3 dB impedance bandwidth ranges are 8-
75 GHz while for 500 µm thickness -3 dB impedance
bandwidth ranges are 8-75 GHz and -10 dB impedance
bandwidth ranges are 10.41-12.16 GHz and 13.07-75 GHz.
Thus PC with lesser thickness provides better S11.

B. PEAK REALIZED GAIN VS FREQUENCY PLOT

Fig. 3 shows the peak realized gain for designed
AVA antenna with PC thickness 250 µm and 500 µm. Fig. 4. Simulated Front to Back Ratio v/s Frequency

The front to back ratio of an antenna is the ratio of

powers in forward direction to the powers in backward
direction. The variations of front to back ratio with respect
to frequency is shown in Fig. 4. The front to back ratio for
250 µm thickness antenna ranges from 16.4 dB to 41 dB and
for 500 µm thickness, it ranges from 10.99 dB to 27.07 dB.
Here, it is observed that there is much improvement in front
to back ratio at frequencies greater than 27 GHz for 250 µm
thickness antenna.
The maximum front to back ratio and maximum peak
realized gain which is obtained for different radar frequency
bands for 250µm thickness and 500 µm thickness is
described in table II, III, IV and V.

TABLE II. MAXIMUM FRONT TO BACK RATIO FOR DIFFERENT

RADAR FREQUENCY BANDS WITH CORRESPONDING
FREQUENCY VALUES FOR DESIGNED AVA WITH 250 µm
THICKNESS

Radar frequency Maximum Corredponding Frequency

Fig. 3. Simulated Peak Realized Gain v/s Frequency bands front to back
ratio (in dB)
The peak realized gain is the gain of antenna with the
combination of reflection and mismatch losses and measured
X 33.54 At 10.5 GHz
in dBi i.e. with respect to isotropic radiator. As we can see
from Fig. 3, before 27 GHz antenna with both thicknesses Ku 28.50 At 17.5 GHz
shows comparable peak realized gain but at some frequency
points peak realized gain is better for 500 µm PC thickness. K 40.02 At 20 GHz
For 250 µm thickness antenna the range of peak realized gain
is 5-12.7 dBi and for 500 µm thickness antenna the range of Ka 41.03 At 34..5 GHz
peak realized gain is 2.18-11.73 dBi.
Q 30.14 At 48 GHz
At high frequencies, peak realized gain is good but
from 27 GHz and above, peak realized gain for antenna with V 31.86 At 68.5 GHz
 TABLE III. MAXIMUM PEAK REALIZED GAIN FOR DIFFERENT D. IMPEDANCE (Z11)
RADAR FREQUENCY BANDS WITH CORRESPONDING
FREQUENCY VALUES FOR DESIGNED AVA WITH 250 µm The curves of impedance for real and imaginary part are
THICKNESS shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6.
Radar frequency Maximum Corresponding Frequency
bands peak realized
gain (in dBi)

X 8.43 At 8 GHz

Ku 9.04 At 17 GHz

K 9.36 At 27 GHz

Ka 12.70 At 27.5 GHz

Q 10.82 At 41.5 GHz

V 9.94 At 53.5 GHz

TABLE IV. MAXIMUM FRONT TO BACK RATIO FOR DIFFERENT

RADAR FREQUENCY BANDS WITH CORRESPONDING
FREQUENCY VALUES FOR PROPOSED AVA WITH 500 µm
THICKNESS
Fig. 5. Impedance (Z11) curve (real and imaginary part) for 250 µm thickness
Radar frequency Maximum Corresponding frequency
bands front to back
ratio (in dB)

X 30.65 At 10 GHz

Ku 29.03 At 12 GHz

K 27.07 At 27 GHz

Ka 27.07 At 27 GHz

Q 26.71 At 51.5 GHz

V 26.71 At 51.5 GHz

TABLE V. MAXIMUM FRONT TO BACK RATIO AND PEAK

REALIZED GAIN FOR DIFFERENT RADAR FREQUENCY BANDS
WITH CORRESPONDING FREQUENCY VALUES FOR PROPOSED
AVA WITH 500 µm THICKNESS Fig. 6. Impedance (Z11) curve (real and imaginary part) for 500 µm thickness

Radar frequency Maximum Corresponding frequency The impedance matching is one of the important
bands peak realized parameters to measure the performance of the antenna. The
gain (in dBi) frequency points where real part of impedance approaches
to 50 Ω, the imaginary part approaches to 0 Ω.

E. RADIATION PATTERN
X 9.12 At 11 GHz As observed from Fig. 5 and Fig. 6, the antenna
with 250 µm thickness shows better radiation
Ku 8.81 At 17 GHz
characteristics. The better radiation patterns are indicated by
K 11.73 At 26 GHz the less number of side lobes and back lobes of 250 µm
thickness in addition to improved radiation in boresight
Ka 10.96 At 28 GHz direction which can be observed from the fact that peak
realized gain is maximum amount of gain observed in
Q 8.93 At 40 GHz boresight direction and the peak realized gain is better than
500 µm thickness.
V 6.69 At 50 GHz
 (a) (b)

(c) (d)

Fig.5 Radiation patterns for 250 µm thickness at various frequencies: (a) At 15GHz, (b) At 30 GHz, (c) At 45 GHz and (d) At 66GHz

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Fig.6 Radiation patterns for 500 µm thickness at various frequencies: (a) At 15GHz, (b) At 30 GHz, (c) At 45 GHz and (d) At 66GHz
 IV CONCLUSION Improved Radiation Pattern," in IEEE Antennas and Wireless
Propagation Letters, vol. 14, pp. 1334-1337, 2015.
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[17] W. Lu and H. Zhu, "Super-wideband antipodal slot antenna," 2009
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unidirectional nature. The maximum peak realized gain of Proceedings - Microwaves, Antennas and Propagation, vol. 143, no.
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maximum peak realized gain of 500 µm thickness antenna. [19] P. Nijhawan, A. Kumar and Y. Dwivedi, "A flexible corrugated
vivaldi antenna for radar and see-through wall applications," 2018 3rd
International Conference on Microwave and Photonics (ICMAP),
ACKNOWLEDGMENT Dhanbad, 2018, pp. 1-2.
The authors are thankful to Mr. Saket Kumar for
providing CST-Microwave Studio facility at NIT Patna,
India.

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