Wideband Vivaldi antenna array with mechanical support and protection radome for land-mine detection radar

Abstract

A wideband antenna array is developed for the land-mine detection in the desert with an on-board radar. The final array is very large and contains 128 Vivaldi antennas. The array is split into 16 sub-arrays of 8 elements. Each Vivaldi antenna is driven independently by electronic switches for SAR imaging purpose. In a first step, a sub-array of 8 elements has been studied, fabricated and measured in the anechoic chamber. In a second step, influences of the overall mechanical support and the protection radome are studied numerically and experimentally. This paper focuses on the second aspect with the minimization of both support and radome effects on the radiation performances of the Vivaldi elementary antenna.