Design of a corrugated antipodal Vivaldi antenna with stable pattern

Abstract

An antipodal Vivaldi antenna (AVA) with tapered corrugated edge from 6 GHz to 18 GHz is designed and fabricated. This antenna can be used in ultra-wide band applications that need stable patterns such as in direction finding systems. The two tapered microstrip antennas are printed on the top and bottom sides of a substrate. The microstrip ground plane is eliminated since one of the tapered microstrip is used as a ground plane. In this technique, an unbalanced to balanced balun is not required. The measured antenna gain is 8 dBi while maintaining VSWR less than 2. There is a good agreement between the simulated and measured results.