IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 66, NO.
8, AUGUST 2018
Communication
High-Gain Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna Surrounded by
Dielectric for Wideband Applications
Mahdi Moosazadeh
Abstract— In this communication, an antipodal Vivaldi antenna sur-
rounded by dielectric (AVA-SD) is proposed for wideband applications
such as microwave and millimeter-wave imaging, see-through walls,
and radio astronomy. The main features of the proposed AVA-SD are
wideband high gain, high front-to-back ratio, corrected the E-plane tilt of
beam at wide bandwidth, narrow half-power beamwidth, and low sidelobe
and cross-polarization levels. A prototype of the proposed AVA-SD is
fabricated, and its performance is simulated and measured demonstrating
operating frequency bandwidth from 5 to 50 GHz. The designed AVA-SD
has overall size of 31.6 × 110 mm2 .
Index Terms— Antipodal Vivaldi antenna (AVA), cross-polarization,
high gain, wideband applications.
I. I NTRODUCTION
One of the applications of microwave imaging is nondestructive
detection and evaluation of defects, damages, and structural fea-
tures inside construction materials including plastic, wood, rubber,
plasterboard, and concrete that have different electrical properties.
It means, for example, they can be low loss (e.g., plastic) and
high loss (e.g., wet concrete), i.e., they have different reflection
properties, transmission properties, and depth of penetration. The
range resolution in material is determined approximately by the signal
bandwidth. High-range resolution imaging of targets inside construc-
tion materials and composite structures requires wide bandwidth and
directive microwave and millimeter-wave antennas [1], [2]. Antipodal
Vivaldi antennas (AVA) may be a best option for imaging applications
due to their directional radiation, wide bandwidth, low fabrication
cost, small dimension, and easy integration with devices. In addition
to have wide bandwidth, the AVA should have high gain and front-
to-back (F-to-B) ratio in the frequency band of interest.
Recently, a few Vivaldi antennas have been reported in the lit-
erature to improve antenna gain. A double-antipodal structure with
corrugated edges and a dielectric director was introduced in [3]
to improve gain at the frequency range between 5 and 18 GHz.
A double-slot Vivaldi antenna was developed in [4] to improve gain
at the frequency range between 2.5 and 15 GHz. In [5], a dielectric
loaded AVA was presented to enhance antenna gain at high frequen-
cies but only for K a -band applications. A miniaturized CPW-fed AVA
with elliptically shaped strip conductors was designed in [6]; however,
its gain is low and cross-polarization levels were not reported.
Exponential AVA with exponential dielectric lens was proposed in [7]
to improve gain. The proposed antenna in [7] has large size and its
gain is low, especially at high frequencies. An AVA with structural
modification was reported in [8] for wideband radar cross-sectional
Manuscript received February 4, 2018; revised April 23, 2018; accepted
May 22, 2018. Date of publication May 25, 2018; date of current version
August 2, 2018. This work was supported by the Structural Health Monitoring
in Western Sydney University under Grant 17834256.
The author is with the Centre for Infrastructure Engineering, School of Com-
puting, Engineering and Mathematics, Western Sydney University, Penrith,
NSW 2751, Australia (e-mail: m.moosazadeh@westernsydney.edu.au).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this communication are
available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2018.2840839
0018-926X © 2018 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
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4349
reduction; however, antenna gain is low at low frequencies; cross-
polarization levels were not reported, and low F-to-B was obtained.
To enhance directivity, a high-gain Vivaldi antenna based on com-
pactly anisotropic zero-index metamaterials was proposed in [9] to
achieve high gain in narrow bandwidth (e.g., 9.5–10.5 GHz). In [10],
a modified balanced AVA with the dielectric director was reported
to feature high gain and low cross-polarization, as a result maximum
gain of 12.6 dB and the cross-polarization level less than −30 dB at
1.5–15 GHz were achieved. The dielectric director used in [10] was
with higher dielectric constant than that of the antenna substrate.
In [11], a miniaturized AVA with wide bandwidth and gain improve-
ment up to 30 GHz was presented for detection of voids inside
concrete specimens. In [12], a modified AVA with the loaded structure
was presented to improve antenna gain in bandwidth of 4–50 GHz
but its gain is low (i.e., 3–12 dBi). Recently, an AVA with elliptical-
shaped dielectric lens was designed and detailed in [13] with wide
bandwidth (5–50 GHz) and high gain at low and high frequencies;
however, its E-plane tilt of beam is tilted at middle frequencies
(e.g., 7° at 12.5 GHz), its gain is relatively low at wide bandwidth,
F-to-B ratio is low (e.g., 16 dB at 40 GHz), and sidelobe level (SLL)
is high at high frequencies. To improve aforementioned radiation
characteristics, an AVA surrounded by dielectric (AVA-SD) layers of
Teflon (PTFE) is proposed in this communication, and referred to as
AVA-SD. The loading dielectric technique could support surface wave
and couple energy from the antenna that propagates along the air-
dielectric interface and as a result radiates in the endfire direction and
enhance antenna gain. The performance of the referenced antennas
compared with the proposed AVA-SD is summarized in Table I.
The main contributions of this communication are as follows.
1) Wideband high-gain AVA is achieved. Antenna gain for
millimeter-wave frequency range 30–50 GHz is >19 dB.
2) F-to-B ratio is improved at wide bandwidth.
3) E-plane tilt of beam is corrected at wide bandwidth
(14–50 GHz).
4) Low SLL and cross-polarization ratio are achieved.
5) Narrow E-plane half-power beamwidth (HPBW) (e.g., 6.45° at
50 GHz) is achieved.
II. C ONFIGURATION OF THE D ESIGNED A NTENNA
S URROUNDED BY D IELECTRIC
The configurations of the AVA [13] and the proposed AVA-SD
are presented in Fig. 1(a) and (b), respectively. The AVA in [13]
is called reference AVA in this communication. The reference AVA
was designed on Rogers RO4003C with relative permittivity of 3.38,
loss tangent of 0.0027, thickness of 0.508 mm, and is fed through
microstrip line. The parametric study on parameters of the reference
AVA was detailed and presented in [13]. The AVA operates as
a traveling wave radiator at high frequencies and excites surface
wave traveling along its axial direction. Two scenarios have been
investigated to achieve a wideband high-gain antenna. In the first
 4350
TABLE I
P ERFORMANCE OF THE R EFERENCED A NTENNAS AND THE AVA-SD
Fig. 1. (a) Reference AVA with zoomed-in view of the ground plane.
(b) Proposed AVA-SD. (c) Cross-sectional view of the AVA-SD. (d) Simulated
S11 for the reference AVA and the proposed AVA-SD.
scenario, the length of the used dielectric lens [R in Fig. 1(a)]
is extended up to 30 mm, which results in a drop of the gain
above 32 GHz [see Fig. 5(b)] since higher order modes are excited.
To enhance antenna gain and suppression of higher order modes
in high frequency, second scenario has been considered where the
reference AVA is surrounded by dielectric material. The relatively
permittivity of the surrounding dielectric has been selected in such
a way that to be close to the antenna’s substrate to prevent potential
reflections from the abrupt change of the dielectric constant between
the surrounded dielectric and the antenna substrate; and to provide
smooth transition to surrounding air. To do this, Teflon (PTFE) with
relative permittivity of 2.1, loss tangent of 0.0002, and thickness
of 0.8 mm is selected. The dimensions of the Teflon are Wdielectric =
31.6 mm and L dielectric = 101.5 mm as shown in Fig. 1(b).
To confine most of the energy, the surrounding dielectric is extended
as designated with L d1 .
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 66, NO. 8, AUGUST 2018
Fig. 2. Co- and cross-polarization of the E-plane and H-plane radiation
patterns of the proposed AVA-SD at 45 GHz for n = 0.8 mm and n = 2 mm.
Fig. 3. Gain variation for different values of (a) Wd and (b) L d1 of the
proposed AVA-SD.
The simulated magnitude of reflection coefficient, S11 , of the
presented antennas at bandwidth of 5–50 GHz is plotted in Fig. 1(d).
It is clearly found that loading the surrounding dielectric does not
significantly affect the reflection coefficient of the antenna.
The designed AVA with surrounding dielectric should have single-
mode propagation. The electromagnetic waves emanating from the
reference AVA are coupled into the surrounded dielectric and propa-
gate as surface waves with the same velocity as those in the antenna
board, as a result the nonuniform wavefront is transformed into
plane wavefront. Therefore, the effectiveness of the parameters of the
employed surrounded dielectric on the antenna performance should be
considered. The thickness of the surrounded dielectric n and distance
between the antenna’s substrate and surrounded dielectric Wd are key
design parameters and need to be optimized to avoid exciting higher
order modes.
The normalized co- and cross-polarizations of H-plane and E-plane
radiation patterns for n = 0.8 and 2 mm at 45 GHz are shown
in Fig. 2. It is clearly seen from co-polarization results indicated
in Fig. 2 that narrower HPBW and low SLL are achieved using n =
0.8 mm. Furthermore, low cross-polarization level better than −30
dB in the main beam direction are achieved in the E-plane and
H-plane for the value of n = 0.8 mm. The gain variation versus
frequency of the proposed AVA-SD for different values of the Wd
is depicted in Fig. 3(a); it shows that the highest gain is achieved at
Wd = 2.5 mm. The gain variation versus frequency of the proposed
AVA-SD for different values of the L d1 is shown in Fig. 3(b); it shows
that the antenna gain increases when L d1 increases, and as a result
the highest value of gain is obtained at L d1 ≥ 40 mm
III. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION
The parameters of the proposed AVA-SD are optimized by para-
metric study by using CST Microwave Studio software. Optimal
parameters have been achieved as follows: WSUB = 30 mm, L SUB =
40 mm, W A = 18.76 mm, W p1 = (WSUB + W f )/2, W p2 =
(WSUB − W f )/2, L p1 = 2.165 × W p1 , L p2 = 8.8 mm, θ = 20°,
Ws1 = 0.6 mm, L s1 = 5.8 mm, Ws2 = 0.6 mm, L s2 = 3 mm,
R = 15 mm, W f = 1.19 mm, L f = 8.5 mm, bg = 8 mm,
Wg = 2 mm, ag = (Wg − W f )/2 mm, Wdielectric = 31.6 mm,
n = 0.8 mm, L dielectric = 101.5 mm, L d1 = 40 mm, and Wd =
2.5 mm. A prototype of the AVA-SD was fabricated and tested with
Agilent N5225A performance network analyzer.
 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 66, NO. 8, AUGUST 2018 4351

Fig. 4. (a) Simulated and measured S11 of the proposed AVA-SD.

(b) Photograph of the fabricated AVA-SD.

Fig. 5. Gain variation for the reference AVA, reference AVA with R =
30 mm, and the proposed AVA-SD at (a) entire frequency range 5–50 GHz
and (b) millimeter-wave frequencies 30–50 GHz.

Fig. 6. Simulated E-field distribution on xyplane for (a) reference AVA and
(b) proposed AVA-SD at 45 GHz.

The measured magnitude of the reflection coefficient of the pro-

posed antenna is shown in Fig. 4(a), demonstrating a bandwidth
of 5–50 GHz for S11 < −10 dB. There is good agreement between
the measured and simulation results except for some discrepancies
which can be attributed to the inaccuracy in fabrication of antenna,
the irregularity of substrate drilling to create holes for screwing
connector, and irregularity of bonding of the surrounding dielectric.
A photograph of the fabricated AVA-SD with 2.4 mm connector is
shown in Fig. 4(b).
The gain variations of the reference AVA, AVA with extended
lens (R = 30 mm), and the proposed AVA-SD in the entire
frequency band 5–50 GHz and millimeter-wave frequency band
30–50 GHz are depicted in Fig. 5(a) and (b). It can be clearly
seen from Fig. 5 that loading dielectric technique enhances antenna Fig. 7. Normalized simulation (co- and cross-polarization) and measurement
gain, it shows gain >11 dB at the frequency range of 10–15 GHz, (co-pol) results of the E-plane (left) and H-plane (right) radiation patterns of
gain >15 dB at 12–30 GHz, and gain >19 dB at the millimeter-wave the reference AVA and the proposed AVA-SD.
frequency band [see Fig. 5(b)], 30–50 GHz, are achieved. The gain of
the AVA-SD reaches to 20.5 dB at 41 GHz which is 8 dB higher than The simulated and measured normalized co- and cross-polarization
that of the reference AVA. To further demonstrate effect of the loading of the E-plane (xy plane) and H-plane (yz plane) radiation patterns
dielectric technique on increase of antenna gain and higher order of the proposed AVA-SD compared with the reference AVA at
suppression at high frequencies, electrical field intensity distribution different frequencies are shown in Fig. 7. A good agreement can be
on xy plane for the reference AVA and the proposed AVA-SD at viewed between simulation and measured results of co-polarization of
frequency of 45 GHz is shown in Fig. 6. It can be clearly viewed from proposed AVA-SD. There are some discrepancies in low frequencies
Fig. 6(a) that the main beam in reference AVA is divided into two which can be attributed to the irregularity of substrate drilling to
beams, designated with “A,” originated from higher order excitation create holes for screwing connector and irregularity of bonding of
in high frequency (see Fig. 7), as a result, it causes relatively low the surrounding dielectric. It is clearly viewed from Fig. 7 that
antenna gain (see Fig. 5). On the other hand, Fig. 6(b) obviously higher order excitation is relatively alleviated at the high frequencies
exhibits that the employed loading technique has alleviated higher with the loading dielectric technique and low SLL is achieved
order excitation and splitting beam at high frequency and as a result for the proposed AVA-SD compared with the reference AVA. For
gain is increased (see Fig. 5). example, low SLL in the H-plane of −14.6 dB (sim.) and −14.8 dB

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 4352
Fig. 8. (a) H-plane HPBW. (b) E-plane HPBW. (c) F-to-B ratio. (d) E-plane
tilt of beam for the reference AVA and the proposed AVA-SD.
(meas.) at 27.5 GHz, −14.3 dB (sim.) and −13.6 dB (meas.) at
33 GHz, and −17 dB (sim.) and −16.7 dB (meas.) at 45 GHz are
achieved for the proposed AVA-SD compared with the reference AVA
(i.e., −10.1 dB at 27.5 GHz, −7.6 dB at 33 GHz, and −13.9 dB at
45 GHz). A low cross-polarization levels of better than 22 dB at
21.5 GHz, 28 dB at 27.5 GHz, and 35 dB at 33 and 50 GHz for the
proposed AVA-SD are obtained. The additional observations from
Fig. 7 are presented in Fig. 8(a)–(d). Fig. 8(a) and (b) shows the
H-plane and E-plane HPBW for the proposed AVA-SD and the
reference AVA. It can be clearly seen from Fig. 8(a) and (b) that
H-plane and E-plane HPBW are narrower for the proposed
AVA-SD than that of the reference antenna. For instance, the
E-plane HPBW [see Fig. 8(b)] is 12° at 50 GHz for the
reference AVA, while it is 6.45° for the proposed AVA-SD.
Fig. 8(c) shows the F-to-B ratio for the proposed AVA-SD
and the reference AVA, showing an average improvement of
10 dB in most frequencies. For instance, the maximum F-to-B
ratio (i.e., 36.6 dB) is achieved for the proposed AVA-SD at frequency
of 21.5 GHz, which is 15 dB more than the reference AVA at
the same frequency. It is also noteworthy to be mentioned that the
proposed AVA-SD is capable of partly correcting the E-plane tilt of
beam in comparison with the achieved results of the reference AVA,
as depicted in Fig. 8(d). It can be clearly viewed from Fig. 8(d)
that loading dielectric technique corrects the E-plane tilt of beam,
0° and/or −1°, at wide bandwidth of 14–50 GHz compared with
the reference AVA. Overall, the E-plane tilt of beam is alleviated
at bandwidth of 5–14 GHz with the loading dielectric technique,
for instance, tilt of beams at 12.5 GHz in the reference AVA is 7°,
while it is 1° for the AVA-SD. To specify the worthiness of the
proposed AVA-SD, its performance is compared with the referenced
antennas with respect to the used dimensions and dielectric constant
as detailed in Table I. Though the antenna in [5] has also relatively
small size, the proposed AVA-SD has wider bandwidth. As shown,
the proposed AVA-SD exhibits high gain at the highest frequency of
the operating bandwidth, i.e., 19.4 dB at 50 GHz. It can be clearly
seen that lower cross-polarization levels are achieved in different
frequency ranges by the proposed AVA-SD over the referenced
antennas. An investigation into the angular-based fidelity factor which
is specified by the absolute value of the maximum of the cross
correlation coefficient (i.e., level of similarity between transmitted
and received signals) was considered and presented in Table II. It was
found that the fidelity factors are higher in the E-plane than that of
the H-plane. In θ = 90°, the value of fidelity factors are much lower
since the transmitted and received signals become orthogonal to each
other.
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 66, NO. 8, AUGUST 2018
TABLE II
A CHIEVED F IDELITY FACTOR OF THE P ROPOSED AVA-SD
IN THE H-P LANE AND E-P LANE FOR D IFFERENT
A NGULAR D ISPLACEMENTS
IV. C ONCLUSION
Design of an AVA-SD is presented. The main features of the
proposed antenna include: wideband high gain, corrected the E-plane
tilt of beam 0° and/or −1° at wide bandwidth of 14–50 GHz, low SLL
and cross-polarization level, narrow the E-plane HPBW (e.g., 6.45°
at 50 GHz), and improved F-to-B ratio (e.g., 36.6 dB at 21.5 GHz).
The proposed antenna has a gain >11 dB at the frequency range
of 10–15 GHz, >15 dB for the range of 12–30 GHz, and >19 dB
for the millimeter-wave frequency range of 30–50 GHz. With the
aforementioned features, the proposed antenna is a good candidate
for wideband applications such as microwave and millimeter-wave
imaging to achieve high-range resolution imaging of targets in
construction materials and composite structures.
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