25th Annual Review of Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics March 8 - March 12, 2009 - Monterey, California '2009 ACES

A Novel Design of ultra-wide band bowtie antenna for Ground Penetrating

Radar (GPR) applications

Ying Huang*, Arijit De, and Ercument Arvas

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA
yhuang35@syr.edu, ade@syr.edu, earvas@syr.edu

Abstract: A novel design of bowtie antenna for Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) applications is
proposed. The prototypes were simulated in CST Microwave Studio. Measurements show that
3:1 VSWR for 0.6GHz-3.5GHz has been realized. Constant radiation pattern in the wide
frequency band has been observed, which is requirement for GPR antenna. The antenna was used
in a real GPR system, and targets buried in shallow lossy ground were successfully detected.
This work is a project in a project based graduate antenna course.

Keywords: Bowtie antenna, GPR antenna, ultra-wide band antenna.

1. Introduction

Impulse ground penetrating radar (GPR) has been used for detection and identification of
subsurface objects [1]. Since a short pulse is transmitted by the GPR antenna, a wide band
antenna with unidirectional radiation pattern is required for these applications. Moreover, the
antenna should be compact enough for easy mounting, integration with other electronic circuits,
and the ease in fabrication of array.
It has been proposed in [2], that a double sided printed bowtie antenna could be used for
UWB application. Based on this, we proposed our double sided printed bowtie antenna which
operates from 0.6GHz to 1.8GHz for GPR application. Instead of feeding the antenna by a
microstrip line using a very long multi-stage matching network, we proposed to use the probe
feed with inset cut for compact size and reducing late ringing. The substrate used was RO6006
from Rogers Corporation [3] with permittivity 6.15 and thickness of the substrate is 1.27mm.

2. Design Procedure

The intrinsic impedance of the bow-tie antenna, printed double sided on the dielectric
substrate, and fed at the center, is around 110 ohms. Traditionally, a multi-stage matching
network has been used to match the input impedance of the bowtie antenna to 50 ohms [2]. This
kind of geometry is shown in Fig. 1. This works well when the frequency of operation is quite
high. However, in the low frequency applications, the matching network will become quite large
in size compared to the dimension of the antenna itself. This makes it very cumbersome and
difficult to mount. To avoid this problem, a new way of impedance matching has been proposed.
It is well known [4, p.14] that a narrow notch cut out of the radiating edge of a rectangular patch
antenna, reduces the input impedance of the antenna. We apply a similar idea of inset cut to
reduce the impedance of the bowtie antenna from 110 ohms to 50 ohms. The details of the inset
cut are shown in Fig. 2. The optimum dimensions of the final design of the antenna are also
shown in Fig. 2. The inner edge of the antenna is c =30mm. The depth of the inset is dx =1.5mm
and the cut out notch is dy =7.0mm from the either side of the center. In order to feed the antenna

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with a probe, a narrow extension overlapping on the bottom bowtie, connects the center
conductor of the probe feed to the top bowtie. The top and the bottom bowties are offset by w1
=1.4 mm. The length of the outer edge of the bowtie antenna L is 120mm and the widths of the
bowtie antenna L11and L12 are 10mm and 70mm respectively. The prototypes of the fabricated
antenna is shown in Fig. 3.

3. Simulation Results and Measured Results

The simulated and the measured results of the return loss for the bowtie antenna are
shown in Fig. 4. All simulated results were computed using the CST Microwave Studio’s Finite
Integration Technique (FIT) based transient simulator [5]. It could be observed that the measured
result follow the trend of the simulated result very well. The simulated result has a 3:1 VSWR
impedance bandwidth of 2.0 GHz. Bow-tie antenna has multiple resonances providing its wide
bandwidth. From both the simulation and the measurement results it seems that there are
multiple resonances at frequencies around 0.65 GHz, 1.3 GHz and 2.6 GHz. The coaxial cable
that was used to feed the antenna in practice, was not taken into account during modeling, which
might account for the slight difference between the simulation and the measurement results at
higher frequencies. However the trend between the simulation and measured results is the same.
The lowest frequency of operation is 600 MHz and the highest frequency is 2.6 GHz. This
antenna is definitely suitable for the GPR applications where we need to send a pulse which
contains the low frequency as it can penetrate through the lossy ground. The high frequency
content helps to provide the resolution of the image. The measured result for the square bowtie
has a 3:1 VSWR impedance bandwidth from 600 MHz to 3.5 GHz.
The co-polarized radiation field patterns are shown in Fig. 5-6. Figure 5a shows the
patterns at frequencies 750 MHz (red), 1.125 GHz (blue), and 1.5 GHz (green), in the E- Plane
i.e. in the XZ Plane of the antenna as shown in Fig. 3. The simulated pattern in this plane is quite
stable from 600 MHz to around 1.8 GHz. The maximum gain is along the 0 degree i.e. the
broadside Z-direction. There is a deep null at 90 degree i.e. along the X- direction of the antenna.
The measured radiation pattern agrees quite well with the simulated radiation pattern in the
broadside direction. The simulated radiation pattern is symmetric but the measured radiation
pattern does not show the symmetry. This is because the coaxial cable feed of the antenna bends
while the antenna is rotated on the pattern measurement setup. This gives an asymmetric setup
and slight discrepancies do appear in the antenna radiation pattern around 90 degree angle.
However the measured gain along the X-direction is almost 20 dB down compared to the gain
along the broadside direction. The measured radiation pattern also seems to be quite stable and
does not change much with frequency. Thus this antenna has a quite stable pattern making it
suitable for GPR applications. Figure 5b shows the patterns at 1.75 GHz (red) and 2.0 GHz
(blue). At 1.75 GHz the simulated pattern seems to be quite stable as before but the pattern tends
to break down as the frequency is increased from 1.75 GHz to 2.0 GHz. A slight null tends to
appear at 30 degree from the broadside direction, which gets deeper as the frequency increases
further. The maximum gain of the antenna starts shifting towards the end-fire i.e. the Y-direction,
as the frequency is increased. The measured results show the appearance of the null and it
confirms the limitation of such antenna for higher frequencies in the broadside direction in spite
of having a larger impedance bandwidth. It could be observed that the measurement result shows
a deeper null than the simulation result at 2GHz. Deeper nulls and degraded pattern do appear in
the simulations as the frequency increases. The slight differences in the frequency at which the
pattern degrades considerably, might be due to the presence of the coaxial feed. The 3-dB gain

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25th Annual Review of Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics March 8 - March 12, 2009 - Monterey, California '2009 ACES

bandwidth is 1.2 GHz with the operating frequency range being from 600 MHz to 1.8 GHz. Fig.
6 shows the patterns at frequencies 750 MHz, 1.125 GHz, 1.5 GHz, 1.75GHz, and 2.0GHz in the
H-Plane i.e. in the YZ Plane. It could be observed that the bowtie antenna has similar radiation
pattern as dipole antenna. The maximum gain is along the Z-direction as before. The radiation
pattern starts degrading with the appearance of nulls, at the frequencies around 2.0 GHz and thus
similar conclusions can be drawn regarding the gain bandwidth applicability of the antenna, as in
the case of the E-Plane radiation pattern. The cross-polarized fields are not shown because their
magnitudes in both planes were approximately 15dB lower than the co-polarized fields. These
and other details about this project will be available at http://surf.syr.edu. The measured time
domain response also showed considerable less late-time ringing and shallow buried objects
could be observed without further processing of the time domain data.

4. Conclusions

An ultra-wideband bowtie antenna with novel inset cut probe feed matching is proposed for GPR
applications. Throughout the design procedure, we optimized the antenna for impedance match
and constant gain along the broadside direction, over the wide frequency range applicable for
GPR scenario using CST Microwave Studio. By a notch cut at the edge of the bowtie antenna,
the input impedance could be effectively reduced from 110 ohms to 50 ohms. Experimental
results agree with the simulated results quite well. This type of antenna is compact in size
compared to the bowtie antenna using a large matching network. Good return loss and gain
flatness in a wide frequency band makes it possible for the GPR applications. Preliminary
radiation pattern measurements were performed in our microwave Lab using the “Feedback
Antenna Measurement System” [6]. More accurate measurements were carried out in the
anechoic chamber of Syracuse Research Corporation. Both results agree with the simulation
reasonably. Real world test of the antenna was performed in a GPR system at Penetradar Co. [7].
The antenna was successfully able to detect buried objects making it suitable for GPR
applications.

Acknowledgements

We thank Rogers Corp. for their support in supplying the substrate, and Anaren Microwave Inc.
for their help in the fabrication of the initial prototype. We also thank CST and Sonnet Software Inc., for
providing us the simulation software tools. The authors also wish to acknowledge Mr. Hsu Chi-Min of
Syracuse University for his assistance in fabrication and Mr. Tony Walkup of Syracuse Research
Corporation for his assistance in measuring the radiation pattern of the antennas. We thank Mr. Anthoni
Alongi of Penetradar Co. for allowing us use their GPR facilities.

References

[1] “Ground Penetrating Radar”, D. J. Daniels, Institution of Electrical Engineers, 2004.

[2] K. Kiminami, A. Hirata and T. Shiozawa, “Double-sided printed bow-tie antenna for UWB
Communications,” IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett.,vol.3,pp,152,2004
[3] http://www.rogerscorp.com/acm/producttypes/2/Rogers-High-Frequency-Laminates.aspx
[4] “Microstrip and Printed Antenna Design”, Randy Bancroft, Scitech Publishing Inc.,2006
[5] http://www.cst.com/Content/Products/MWS/Overview.aspx
[6] http://www.fbk.com
[7] http://www.penetradar.com

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25th Annual Review of Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics March 8 - March 12, 2009 - Monterey, California '2009 ACES

Fig. 1. Geometry of the bowtie antenna along with the multi-stage matching network (left) and
the three stage matching network (right).

(a) (b)

Fig. 2. The inset cut in the front side (a) and the probe feed from the back side (b) for the bowtie
antenna.

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25th Annual Review of Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics March 8 - March 12, 2009 - Monterey, California '2009 ACES

(a) (b)

Fig. 3. The operating region i.e. the front side (a) and the feeding side i.e. the back side (b) of
the fabricated bowtie antenna.

S11 of square bowtie

0

-5

-10

-15
s11/dB

-20

-25

-30
CST Simulation
-35 Measurement

-40
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
frequency/GHz

Fig. 4. Simulated and Measured results of the Return Loss for the above bowtie antenna.

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25th Annual Review of Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics March 8 - March 12, 2009 - Monterey, California '2009 ACES

XZ plane
XZ plane
90 CST-750 MHz
40 90 CST-1750 MHz
CST-1125MHz 40
120 60 CST-2000 MHz
CST-1500 MHz 120 60 Meas-1750 MHz
Meas-750 MHz
30 Meas-2000 MHz
Meas-1125 MHz 30
Meas-1500 MHz
150 20 30 150 20 30

10 10

180 0 180 0

210 330 210 330

240 300 240 300

270 270

(a) (b)

Fig. 5 Simulated and Measured E-plane Radiation Pattern for the Square Bowtie Antenna at 750
MHz, 1.125 GHz & 1.5 GHz (a) and 1.75GHz & 2.0GHz (b).

YZ plane CST-750 MHz YZ plane CST-1750 MHz

90 CST-1125MHz 90 CST-2000 MHz
40 40
120 60 CST-1500 MHz 120 60 Meas-1750 MHz
Meas-750 MHz Meas-2000 MHz
30 30
Meas-1125 MHz
Meas-1500 MHz
150 20 30 150 20 30

10 10

180 0 180 0

210 330 210 330

240 300 240 300

270 270

(a) (b)

Fig. 6 Simulated and Measured H-plane Radiation Pattern for the Square Bowtie Antenna at 750
MHz, 1.125 GHz & 1.5 GHz (a) and 1.75GHz & 2.0GHz (b).

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