Parametric study of Vivaldi antenna

N.H.Fouad1, Prof. Dr. A. M. M. A. Allam2

Faculty of Information Engineering and Technology
German University in Cairo
Cairo, Egypt
1
[email protected]
2
[email protected]

Abstract- This article presents the design of Vivaldi antennas The overall antenna size is 82×80 mm2. The exponential function that
for the UWB frequency range specified by the Federal defines taper profile determined by the two points p1(x1, y1) and
Communications Commission FCC (3.1 - 10.6 GHz). An analysis p2(x2, y2) in equation (1) :
on each parameter is done to describe its effect and gives a
control parameter in designing the Vivaldi antenna .The return y = C1 eRX +C2 (1)
loss responses and radiation patterns are considered in the where:
parametric study. The results of simulations realized using CST
microwave studio. The simulated results of return loss are
compared with those of the measured ones and gives good
agreement. The information derived from this study provides
guidelines for the design and optimization of the Vivaldi antenna
which are widely used for UWB applications. C1, C2 are constants and R is the opening rate of the exponential
taper. Note that (x1, y1) and (x2, y2) are the coordinates of the origin
Keywords—Vivaldi antenna, UWB, parametric study
and end of flare curve, respectively. The antenna dimensions are
given in table 1. The fabricated antenna is depicted in Fig. 2. The
measured and simulated return loss is depicted in Fig.3 while the
I. INTRODUCTION radiation pattern is illustrated in Fig.4.
Vivaldi antenna is a planar travelling wave antenna with endfire
radiation. It was first investigated by P. Gibson in 1979 [1] and many
improvements to the initial design came later, namely in the works of
E. Gazit in 1988 [2] and Langley, Hall and Newman [3] in 1996.
Since then, it is widely used in different applications such as
microwave imaging, wireless communications and ground
penetrating radars. There are three fundamental types of Vivaldi
antenna, which can be used to design the radiating structure. These
types are: ttapered slot Vivaldi antenna, antipodal Vivaldi antenna
and balanced antipodal Vivaldi aantenna[4-5]. Vivaldi antennas
provide medium gain depending on the length of the taper and the
shape of the curvature. The gain also changes with frequency, with
values ranging typically from 4 dBi to 8 dBi [3]. Because of the
exponential shape of the tapered radiating structure, antenna
maintains approximately constant beamwidth over the range of
operating frequency [1,2].The mechanism of radiation is a travelling
wave propagating along the slots with a phase velocity less than the
speed of light (i.e., vph ≤ c) which gives an endfire radiation [6]. To
achieve a wider bandwidth to a Vivaldi antenna, a micro strip to slot
transition and quarter wave radian strip line stubs is introduced [7, 8].
A miniaturization of Vivaldi is introduced in [9-12].
This paper describes the parametric study of Vivaldi antennas
regarding the design of an antenna with the given specifications. The
effect of each parameter is investigated performing simulations with
CST microwave studio. The objective is to design an antipodal
Vivaldi antenna to operate in ultra wide band satisfying the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) regulations for indoor
Fig. 1 The antenna design (a) front view (b) back view
applications from 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz.

II. ANTENNA DESIGN

The geometrical configuration of the proposed antennas is shown
in Fig. 1. The antenna is designed on 1.524 mm thick Rogers
RO4350 substrate with permittivity (εr) 3.66 and tangent loss 0.004.
 Table 1 Design dimensions
(a)
(b)

Fig. 4 3D and 2D radiation pattern: a. 3D pattern b. antenna plane

pattern

III. PARAMETRIC STUDY OF VIVALDI ANTENNA

The antenna is simulated for different lengths and widths. Fig.5
and Fig.6 depict the return loss for different widths; 30mm, 40mm,
50mm, 60mm, 70mm and 80mm, keeping the length 82mm. The
directivity and the radiation patterns for widths;30mm, 40mm and
80mm are illustrated in Fig.7 to Fig.9. It is concluded that increasing
the antenna width, decreases the starting frequency of the antenna.
The directivity is nearly constant while, the pattern is nearly endfire.

Fig. 5 The return loss of antipodal antenna (Length=82mm, Width= 60,

70 and 80mm)

Fig. 2 The fabricated antenna

S parameter, dB

Fig. 6 : The return loss of antipodal antenna (Length=82mm, Width= 30,

40 and 50mm)

(a) (b)
Frequency, GHz

Fig. 3 The measured and simulated return loss

Fig. 7 3D and 2D radiation pattern of antipodal antenna (Length=82mm,

Width 30mm): a. 3D pattern b. antenna plane pattern
 (a) (b)

(b)

(a)

Fig. 12 3D and 2D radiation pattern of antipodal antenna

(Length=40mm, Width 80mm): a. 3D pattern b. antenna plane
Fig. 8 3D and 2D radiation pattern of antipodal antenna (Length=82mm,
Width 40mm): a. 3D pattern b. antenna plane
(b)
(a)
(b)
(a)

Fig. 13 3D and 2D radiation pattern of antipodal antenna

Fig. 9 3D and 2D radiation pattern of antipodal antenna (Length=82mm, (Length=50mm, Width 80mm): a. 3D pattern b. antenna plane
Width 80mm): a. 3D pattern b. antenna plane

Fig.10 and Fig.11 depict the return loss for different lengths; (a) (b)
40mm, 50mm, 60mm, 70mm and 82mm, keeping the width 80mm.
The directivity and the radiation patterns for lengths;40mm, 50mm
and 70mm are illustrated from Fig.12 to Fig.14. It is concluded that
increasing the antenna length, decreases the starting frequency of the
antenna. Table 2 represents the directivity and the total efficiency of
the antipodal Vivaldi antenna for different lengths and widths.

Fig. 14 3D and 2D radiation pattern of antipodal antenna

(Length=70mm, Width 80mm): a. 3D pattern b. antenna plane

Table 2 :the directivity and total efficiency of different

configurations for antipodal Vivaldi antenna

Fig.10 The return loss of antipodal antenna (Width=80mm, length= 60,

70 and 82mm)

Fig.11 The return loss of antipodal antenna (width=80mm, length= 40mm

and 50mm)

Concerning the fin of the antipodal Vivaldi antenna, there are

two radii; the inner radius and the outer radius, where the inner radius
is always greater than the outer one as shown in Fig.1. The antenna is
simulated for different radii, we found out that increasing the radii
results in an increase in the bandwidth, which means that the radii of
 curvature can tune the antenna to the required bandwidth as shown in
Fig.15.

Fig. 19 The return loss after adding the Vias

V. CONCLUSION
Fig. 15 The return loss for different radii of curvature for the antipodal The thesis presents the parametric study and implementation of
antenna Vivaldi antenna using CST microwave studio. The 1.524 mm thick
Rogers RO4350 substrate is used to design the antipodal Vivaldi
Edge offset is the extra metallization at the end of fin of the antenna with permittivity (εr) 3.66, tangent loss 0.004 and the overall
antipodal antenna as shown in Fig.16. It prevents edge currents to size of the antenna 82×80 mm2. It is concluded that increasing the
come across a sharp end. It is found that adding an edge offset after antenna width, decreases the starting frequency of the antenna. The
the fin would not improve return loss response noticeably as shown directivity is nearly constant and the pattern is nearly endfire, while
in Fig.17. increasing the antenna length, decreases the starting frequency of the
antenna. Also we found out that increasing the radii results in an
increase in the bandwidth, which means that the radii of curvature
Offset can tune the antenna to the required bandwidth. After adding notched
squares, we notice that vias notch some frequency of the operating
band of the Vivaldi antenna.

REFERENCES
[1] P.J. Gibson. “The Vivaldi aerial.”, Proceedings of the 9th
Fig. 16 The antenna design after adding an edge offset European Microwave Conference, pp.101–105, 1979.
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Sparameter, dB

Proceedings,no.135,pp .89–92, 1988.

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