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Vivaldi Coplanar-Antipodal Antennas

Conference Paper · September 2020

DOI: 10.1109/UkrMW49653.2020.9252807

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Vivaldi Coplanar-Antipodal Antennas
Victor Naydenko
National Technical University of Ukraine
“Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”
Kyiv, Ukraine
victor_naydenko@ukr.net
Abstract— The stages of refinement of the Vivaldi antenna,
which has both coplanar and antipodal radiators, is given, which
gives it an advantage over the known Vivaldi antennas. The
electromagnetic simulation results obtained with the CST studio
suite software were compared with the experimental results of
the printed coplanar-antipodal antenna measurements with the
Anritsu MS46122A vector analyzer, resulting in a good
correlation of results. The ultra-wideband radar antenna has
minimal cross polarization and will later be used to emit and
receive picoseconds pulses. The design is based on slotted lines
or a modified Vivaldi antenna. The maximum achievable gain is
10 dBi in the 6-8 GHz frequency range. The coplanar-antipodal
antenna is powered by a matching balloon to which a 50-ohm
coaxial line is connected at one end and a 100-ohm antenna at
the other. Simple configuration and wide bandwidth make the
proposed coplanar-antipodal antenna a good option for
versatile communication tasks.
Antenna requirements: low cross polarization matching;
work in UWB, frequency range 0.5-8 GHz; VSWR≤2.0; flat
shape with compact dimensions; low losses; maximum focus,
minimum level of side lobes.
Keywords—UWB, symmetrical planar flat antenna, antipode
antenna, Vivaldi antenna, ultra wideband antenna.
I. INTRODUCTION
Different types of antennas for ultra-wideband systems of
different applications have been researched and developed.
One of the main reasons for UWB's operation is the ability of
the antenna to emit narrow electromagnetic pulses (about 100-
200 ps) without distortion. Such short pulses allow you to
better scan the space and give it more information. Low
VSWR values are required because the antenna is designed to
receive and transmit probe pulses. Low losses lead to a better
signal-to-noise ratio and should be achieved by a low-loss
substrate.
Any radar antenna system is characterized by directional
radiation with low levels of side lobes.
To obtain the broadband properties of the antennas
according to the principle of electrodynamics similarity, it is
necessary that the ratio between the antenna size and the
wavelength remain unchanged. This is only possible in
structures of unlimited size, the shape of which depends only
on the angular coordinates. However, structures with limited
dimensions also turn out to be fairly wide-range.
Such structures include a conical vibrator, logarithmic
helical antennas, logo periodic antennas, Vivaldi antennas,
some modifications of horn antennas, antennas on slit, strip or
microstrip lines, etc.
Now we know a large number of antennas that have
similar designs among themselves. Selection of antenna types
is based on technical requirements. We will focus on Vivaldi
antennas that, with some refinements in the future, can meet
our specifications.
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978-1-7281-7312-2/20/$31.00 ©2020 IEEE
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Maxim Kozachuk
National Technical University of Ukraine
“Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”
Kyiv, Ukraine
firemax777@gmail.com
Vivaldi antennas have received considerable attention due
to their numerous advantages, namely: wide bandwidth,
simplicity of structure, high gain, low VSWR, ease of
manufacture. This type of antenna is often used in radar and
radio communications. Vivaldi's antenna was first proposed in
1979 by Gibson [1]. There are three designs of the Vivaldi
antenna, namely: the Vivaldi coplanar antenna, the Vivaldi
antenna, the Vivaldi balanced antenna. Antipodal differs from
coplanar in that the antenna patches are on both sides of the
dielectric. The Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna (AVA), created by
Ehud Gazit in 1988 [2], has a much wider frequency band than
the coplanar antenna. The balanced Vivaldi antenna reduces
the level of cross-polarization due to the structure with three
copper layers, among which two outer layers are located on
the two outer sides of the dielectric substrates and the central
layer between the two dielectric substrates [3].
Most often, Vivaldi antennas are used in the frequency
range from 2 GHz to 70 GHz, since in this frequency range
they are small in size [4 - 10]. Choose a dielectric with a
minimum dielectric constant.
II. MODELING ANTENNA
The proposed antenna geometry (Fig. 1) is taken from
[11]. Coplanar-antipodal antenna simulation uses a 762-μm,
low-loss Rogers AD450 substrate. The dielectric constant of
the substrate is 4.5 and the tangent of the loss angle is 0.0035.
The thickness of metallization is 35 microns. The substrate
measures 300 mm by 280 mm.
It is important to note that metallization is present on both
sides of the substrate, that is, the structure is constructed on a
bilateral slit line, as shown in Fig. 2.
This configuration makes the coplanar-antipodal antenna
symmetrical in two planes along the propagation wave of
excitation from the port to the antenna aperture (E- and H-
plane). This design provides lower cross polarization of the
components, as symmetrical structures tend to have higher
cross polarization isolation. Theoretically, there are no
transversally polar components of the electric field in the
transverse direction.
The socket is optimized for 50 ohm wave resistance by
matching the slit width d. At 50 ohms, the gap for the current
configuration (Fig. 2) is 210 μm (at 100 ohms - 760 μm). 3D
radiation patterns at frequencies of 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 GHz are
shown in Fig. 3.
Fig. 3 illustrates that the simulated directional patterns
have a transverse direction, except for 0.5 GHz, where a slight
deviation of the maximum gain from the antenna axis is
observed.
The minimum gain at all operating frequencies is
approximately -35 dB. But the maximum gain is different, by
0.5 GHz - 2.4 dB, 1 GHz - 4.2 dB, 2 GHz – 5.7 dB,
4 GHz - 7.4 dB, 6 GHz - 9.1 dB, 8 GHz – 9.9 dB.
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Kharkiv, Ukraine, September 21 - 25
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Fig. 1. The upper side of the proposed antenna design.

Fig. 3. 3D radiation patterns for the proposed coplanar-antipodal antenna

design.

Fig. 2. View of a bilateral slit line at an angle.

Fig. 4. VSWR of the original coplanar-antipodal antenna design.

Fig. 5. Cartesian diagrams of the coplanar-antipodal antenna in the H-plane (top) and E-plane (bottom) at different frequencies.

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2020 IEEE 12th International Conference on Antenna Theory and Techniques (ICATT)

Fig. 6. Coplanar-antipodal antenna №1.
VSWR coplanar-antipodal antennas showing Fig. 4. The
maximum VSWR in the range 0.5 - 8.0 GHz is 3.5 and
exceeds the initial antenna requirements. Thus, a modification
of the antenna design is proposed further.
The radial diagrams of the simulated coplanar-antipodal
antenna in the Cartesian coordinate system at all simulated
frequencies in the E-plane and the H-plane are presented in
Fig. 5.
To improve the alignment and the radiated characteristics,
elliptical holes are added to each of the 4 antenna petals in the
primary design (Fig. 6). The larger axis is 1.3 times larger than
the smaller axis. The smaller half of the axis of the ellipses
varied from 20 to 40 mm.
The radiation patterns change little with the introduction
of the holes.
Fig. 8. VSWR coplanar-antipodal antennas with different aperture size.
Fig. 9. VSWR coplanar-antipodal antennas depending on the size of the gap.
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Fig. 7. Coplanar-antipodal antenna №2.
VSWR coplanar-antipodal antennas of different sizes are
shown in Fig. 8. The elliptical section mainly influences the
matching at low frequencies, twice reducing the size of the
hole (from 40 mm to 20 mm less than half of the axis) leads to
an improvement of the VSWR from 3.0 to 2.5. Above 1.2 GHz
VSWR is less than 2.0, while the best matching is above 4
GHz with typical values 1.2 - 1.3.
The next modification of the antenna design is the
introduction of a gap (Fig. 7) in the ring formed by the ellipse
slit. This antenna is similar to the two split ring resonators
(SRR) supplied through the slit line.
The VSWR characteristics of the coplanar-antipodal
antenna with different clearance sizes are shown in Fig. 9. The
1 GHz VSWR decreases for narrower gap gaps. The dx_cut
parameter is defined as half the width of the gap.

Fig. 10. Cartesian radiation patterns for different values of dx_cut, which is defined as half the width of the gap.
Fig. 11. Changing the VSWR at different slit positions.
Fig. 12. Coplanar-antipodal antenna №3.
Fig. 13. Two sides of balun. Total length 280 mm; 50 ohm port on the left,
100 ohm port on the right.
In Fig. 10 shows a radiation diagram of 0.5 GHz,
depending on the size of the gap.
From the above graphs, it follows that smaller gaps
provide better compliance, but the 0.5 GHz gain is small.
Despite the wide radiation directivity at 0.5 GHz, the gain at 1
GHz is reduced relative to the previous design. In Fig. 10 also
shows that the best radiation pattern is characteristic of a 20
mm gap design.
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To further improve coplanar-antipodal antenna alignment
and radiation characteristics, the slit angular position was
varied. The graphs below show the gap as in Fig. 8 and varies
with a rotation angle of from 90° to -30°, while for the 0°
position when the slit is at the top of the ring.
Fig. 11 shows that the gap in the angular positions 60° and
90° show better performance in the characteristics of the
VSWR. The 90° position shows a better result by 0.5 GHz,
while the 1 GHz gain decreases by approximately 1 dB
relative to other break positions. The 60° gap angle has less
gain by about 1 dB and worse VSWR than 90°, but exceeds
the gain at 1 GHz.
Based on the above studies, an antenna of this design (Fig.
12) was designed to test the simulation. The coplanar-
antipodal antenna was manufactured on a FR4 substrate,
which has similar characteristics to Rogers except for higher
losses.
In addition, to facilitate the fabrication of the impedance
of the antenna input port, it has been optimized to 100 ohms,
which has a wider slit line and thus has easier fabrication. For
this reason, a balloon of 280 mm (Fig. 13) was made, using 50
ohms on one side for coaxial connectors and 100 ohms on the
other for antenna input. A Rogers AD450 substrate was used
to make the balloon.
Balun has a maximum VSWR of 1.25 in the lower
operating frequency range, while a typical VSWR of 1.05. The
losses range from 0.4 dB at 0.5 GHz to 1.7 dB at 8 GHz, which
is acceptable in this case.
The simulated characteristics of the coplanar-antipodal
antenna together with the balloon are shown below. The
VSWR is less than 2 in the frequency range from 0.5 to 8.0
GHz (Fig. 14).

Fig. 14. Simulation of the VSWR of the selected prototype.
Fig. 15. Measurement of the VSWR coplanar-antipodal antenna in a
horizontal position.
VSWR
Frequency / GHz
Fig. 16. Measured VSWR for the manufactured prototype coplanar-
antipodal antenna.
III. ANTENNA FABRICATION AND MEASUREMENT
The latest antenna design was made by conventional PCB
manufacturing techniques using photo resist. The image of the
measuring unit for measuring the VSWR is shown in Fig. 15.
Measured VSWR is presented in Fig. 16.
Measured VSWR are in good agreement with the
simulated values. This comparison confirms the modeling
approach and allows us to move to the next step in improving
antenna performance, namely low-loss Rogers substrate
fabrication.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
The article describes three coplanar-antipodal UWB
antennas of the Vivaldi type and their effect on antenna
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2020 IEEE Ukrainian Microwave Week (UkrMW)
Kharkiv, Ukraine, September 21 - 25
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125
matching and radiation properties. After a detailed analysis,
the best antenna version was selected, which was
manufactured and measured. The correspondence between the
experimentally obtained results and the simulated results is
satisfactory.
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