Dielectric loaded polycarbonate based antipodal
Vivaldi antenna for mmWave 5G applications
Dornala Santhoshi Karthikeya G.S
Dept. of ECE CARE
Osmania University IIT Delhi
Hyderabad, India New Delhi
Abstract—In this paper, a modified Antipodal Vivaldi
Antenna (AVA) loaded with dielectric is designed for 5G
wireless applications operating at 28GHz. The proposed
antenna offers wide impedance bandwidth ranging from
24-35GHz (33%) and 8-10 dBi gain over the same frequency
band. To enhance the gain, the proposed antenna is loaded
with dielectric substrate due to which there is gain
enhancement of 1.5dB across the band. Comparison between
flat and bent antennas at different angles is presented to
demonstrate impact of bending on the antenna parameters
since it is employing a flexible Polycarbonate substrate
material which has loss tangent 0.01.
Keywords—Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna (AVA), Dielectric
loading, Bending Analysis.
I. INTRODUCTION
The vast need of data with respect to smartphone users
has captured the attention of scientists and engineers from
both academia and industry to design hardware at 28GHz
and beyond for future 5G wireless systems [1]. 5G will use
spectrum in the existing LTE frequency range (600 MHz to
6 GHz) and also in millimeter wave bands (24–86 GHz) [1].
Both “low band” and “sub-6GHz” frequencies combined
together offers high speed but the disadvantage in using
them is spectral congestion. So we shift to mm-wave bands
which greatly increases the amount of bandwidth available;
spectrum is mostly unused so greater allocations are
possible. Due to wider bandwidths available, high data rates
are achievable at the mm-wave bands. The main problem
associated with using millimeter wave communication is
atmospheric attenuation. In addition, low cost technology
needs to be used to keep the system costs as low as possible
[2]. Effect of atmospheric attenuation can be partially taken
care of by using high gain antenna [3].
Flexible electronics is becoming popular due to their
light weight, low-cost manufacturing, ease of fabrication,
and the availability of low-cost flexible substrates (i.e.:
paper, textiles, LCP, Polycarbonate) [4]. With the gradual
development of electromagnetic simulators, the study of
conformal antennas as a part of flexible electronics has
drawn lot of interest from many organizations. At low
frequencies, the main disadvantage is power handling
capacity [5]. Some of the flexible substrates commonly used
are LCP and Polycarbonate, out of which polycarbonate is
chosen, due to its loss tangent (tan δ=0.01) i.e. power loss
due to the material is less compared to LCP material. In [6]
characteristics of LCP material for higher frequencies are
reported. Polycarbonate has good balance of physical,
978-1-7281-2577-0/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
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Guduguntla.Shivani D.Rama Krishna Shiban K. Koul
Dept. of ECE Dept. of ECE CARE
Osmania University Osmania University IIT Delhi
Hyderabad, India Hyderabad, India New Delhi
chemical, electrical properties over the desired frequency
range and can hold up longer to extreme temperature. It is a
low cost material, is optically transparent and can undergo
large deformations without cracking or breaking [7].
For the design of 5G antenna systems with flexible
substrates, several microstrip antennas have been developed
but due to their narrow bandwidth which depends on the
substrate’s thickness, we shift to the Vivaldi antenna which
has attracted attention due to their broadband characteristics
and highly directional radiation patterns with high gain [8].
In the Vivaldi antennas, there are many categories such as:
Coplanar, Antipodal, and balanced antennas that are
reported in [9]. The disadvantage of using Vivaldi antenna
reported in [10] is due to limited impedance bandwidth
because of feeding structure (microstrip to slot line
transition). By using an antipodal Vivaldi antenna (AVA),
we can achieve extremely wide bandwidth with two
radiators on opposite sides of antenna substrate; namely, top
and bottom layers with feed transition element being
microstrip to double-sided slot-line.
II. ANTENNA DESIGN
In the first step, we designed a conventional antipodal
Vivaldi antenna with copper layer of thickness 0.017mm on
both sides, printed on polycarbonate substrate i.e is shown in
Fig .1(a). The antenna was designed on substrate of
thickness 0.5mm having dielectric constant (εr = 2.9) and
loss of tangent (tan δ = 0.01). The overall dimensions of the
antenna are approximately 35 x 20 x 0.5 mm3 (length x
width x height). The feed-line width is 1.2mm so as to
match to the 50 ohms impedance. In the conventional AVA
design, the aperture width is usually equal to half the
wavelength at the desired frequency of operation. In [11] it
is shown that the exponential curve provides the antenna a
better performance when compared to parabola and
trigonometric function. The antenna was mainly designed
using simply co-ordinate system as shown below. Two
endpoints namely(x1, y1), (x2, y2) and r were set as
variables. The exponential curves employed in the design
can be described by
𝑥 = (𝑎𝑒 𝑟𝑦 + 𝑏) (1)
𝑥1−𝑥2
𝑎 = 𝑒 𝑟𝑦1−𝑒 𝑟𝑦2 (2)
𝑏 = 𝑥1 − 𝑎𝑒 𝑟𝑦1 (3)
Where x1, x2 are the abscissa, y1, y2 are the ordinates of
two endpoints, r is the gradual change ratio, a, b are two
parameters of the exponential function [12]. The designed
antenna shown in Fig. 1 operates in the 24-35GHz band
centered at 28GHz.The exponential profile curve is drawn
using “1” where a, b parameters are found using “2”, “3 ”,
(x1,y1)=(17.5,9.4), (x2,y2)=(35,10.6) which gives radius of
curvatures as r1=0.09, r2=0.25 .
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Fig.1 (a)Conventional AVA, (b) Front side of designed antenna, (c)
Schematic of the ground plane (All dimensions are in mms) and (d)
Photograph of the fabricated prototype
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Using simulation optimization, the optimal impedance
matching is observed when the width of the feedline is
1.2mm. However, the characteristic impedance is 52.3Ω
when height of the substrate is 0.5mm and width of the
feedline is 1.2mm. So, only very small impedance mismatch
occurs when connected to 50Ω feedline directly. Here, the
aperture width is 20mm which is greater than λ0 and length
of the antenna is 6λ0 where λ0 is the free space wavelength
[13]. In the present paper, non uniform corrugations are used
whose width is kept at 1mm and spacing between the
consecutive slots is 2mm.Using the 4 no of slots on the one
side of surface has significant effect on radiation pattern
where it reduces the sidelobe levels in both the planes and it
also improve the return loss characteristics, increases the
gain over the frequency range.
In the next step, we loaded the antenna with dielectric
substrate in order to enhance the gain. In [14] other
enhancement methods are also reported. The antenna has
overall dimensions of approximately 60 x 20 x 0.5 mm 3
(length x width x height) i.e. shown in Fig. 1(b), 1(c). For
the enhancement of gain, one of the most important factors
is shape of the load. Through simulation, comparison
between different shapes such as triangle, trapezium, ellipse
was carried out and it was observed that the elliptical
dielectric loading yielding highest gain. Gain improvement
of 1.5dB from 8.19dBi - 9.69dBi was finally obtained using
the loading. In this paper, the method used for the
fabrication is Chemical etching. It is the process of
fabricating metallic patterns using a photoresist and etchants
to mill out a selected area [15].
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Fig.2 shows simulation and measured results of variation of
reflection coefficient (|S11|) with frequency for the designed
antenna. The reflection coefficient of the conventional
antipodal Vivaldi antenna is below -10 dB for the frequency
range of 28-35GHz. Application of the corrugation for the
proposed antenna has improved the return loss mainly at
center frequency, after the loading the S11 is less than -
15dB from 24-32GHz (20% impedance bandwidth).
Fig.2 S parameters of designed antenna
 The discrepancy between simulated and measured curves
The variation of realized gain against frequency with and could be attributed to alignment errors during pattern
without dielectric loading is shown in Figure 3. As can be measurement.
observed from the Fig.3, the loading of AVA with the
corrugations improved gain throughout the operating
frequency band of the proposed antenna.
Similarly, the increase in the effective length of the
proposed antenna due to the modification leads to a more
directive beam in both the principal cuts. The realized gain
of the proposed AVA is found to be 7.6-8.3dBi over the 24
to 35 GHz bandwidth while the realized gain of the
proposed antenna with dielectric loading is between
8.7-9.8dBi.
Increase in gain can be observed throughout the operating
band of the antenna with the increase of 1.5dB at 28 GHz.
In Fig.4 different geometries of load are plotted like ellipse,
trapezium, triangle, proposed antenna with the variation of
Fig.5 E-plane patterns for 28GHz and 32GHz
realized gain versus frequency is shown. It is observed that
gain enhancement due to ellipse, trapezium, triangle,
E-field distribution due to loading: The E-fields in the
proposed antenna are 1.19dB, 1.21dB, 0.9dB, 1.5dB
radiating aperture with and without dielectric loading is
respectively.
depicted in Fig.6. It is evident that the wavefront at the edge
of the physical aperture is planarized post dielectric loading,
indicating an increase in gain.

Fig.6 E field distributions for designed antenna structures

Fig.3. Gain of the proposed antenna
Bending Analysis: Antenna is bent using cylinder for three
different values of radii i.e.10cm, 11cm, 12cm and it is
compared with the designed antenna. Return loss is
evaluated and compared to check the shift due to impedance
mismatch and change in the effective electrical length of the
radiating elements. When bent the distortions are also
possible due to this gain is also tested.

Fig.4. Gain of the antenna for different load shapes

The E-plane radiation patterns for at 28 and 32 GHz are

shown in Fig.5 where there is the reasonable agreement
between simulated and measured radiation characteristics.

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Fig.7 Reflection co-efficient due to bent antenna at different radii
Fig.8 Gain due to bent antenna at different radii
IV. CONCLUSION
The designed antenna is for future 5G which uses Ka
band with low cost and small size and which is easy to
fabricate. The Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna with the effect of
loading is presented and the main use of designed AVA is
wide bandwidth and high gain antenna which decrease
atmospheric attenuation, the gain is around 9.8dBi at
resonance frequency. The flexibility tests are presented and
which proves the polycarbonate can undergo large
deformations without breaking.
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