A Parametric Study on Performance Improvement of a Tapered Slot Antenna

Abstract

There are many medical applications that require antennas having high field penetration depth and a low profile. However, low profile/miniaturized antennas usually resonate at high frequencies, resulting in low penetration depths. Several studies have proposed the use of antennas with a coupling liquid for lowering the operating frequency of miniaturized antennas. However, immersing the antenna into a coupling liquid has some inherent drawbacks. In this work a parametric study has been carried out on a miniaturized tapered-slot antenna to improve its performance while eliminating the need of a coupling liquid. A dual-exponentially tapered antipodal slot antenna is proposed, which can provide a directional radiation pattern while also being compact.