Compact ultra‐wideband Vivaldi antenna for ground‐penetrating radar detection applications

Abstract

This article presents a study an ultra‐wide bandwidth (UWB) antenna for ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) applications. The GPR is a favorable technology for detection and identification of buried object as landmine or mummy. Vivaldi antennas are studied in terms of operating frequency range and phase to detect an object buried in the sand layer from 1 up to 10 m. The designed Vivaldi antenna is printed on a thick economic FR4 substrate with concise dimensions 12 ×13 ×1 cm3 and operates in the frequency range that extended from 0.4 GHz up to 10 GHz. Experimental results verified good agreement with the simulated results. The proposed antenna has electrically large length with size reduction about 35% from the original antenna size. Vivaldi shape has large average gain about 17 dBi with above 80% average efficiency to differentiate between hidden object material and their shapes. Three‐dimensional electromagnetic simulator, namely High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS) version 14 is used to simulate the proposed antenna.

Super UWB Grooved and Corrugated Antenna for GPR Application

“…Nowadays, ultra-wideband (UWB) antennas have found various applications in GPR such as the inspection of sites and the localization of buried structures [1][2][3][4]. In this framework, some GPR antennas have been proposed in recent literature such those presented in [5][6][7][8][9]. A heavy horn GPR antenna that has a big size of about 410 × 300 × 800 mm 3 and that operates in a narrow band extending from 1 GHz to 2 GHz has been proposed in [5].…”

“…A heavy horn GPR antenna that has a big size of about 410 × 300 × 800 mm 3 and that operates in a narrow band extending from 1 GHz to 2 GHz has been proposed in [5]. In [6], a complex Vivaldi antenna operating in a large bandwidth extending from 0.4 GHz to 10 GHz has been presented. However, its big size of about 120 × 130 × 10 mm 3 is another main drawback that limits its application for GPR detections.…”

Modeling Buried Object Brightness and Visibility for Ground Penetrating Radar

“…GPR systems are particularly relevant for the detection of landmines, and the more general field of Explosive Hazard Detection (EHD), leveraging their ability to non-destructively evaluate both metallic and non-metallic buried objects [6]. Advances in GPR research include hardware and antenna improvements [7], [8], [9], as well as software improvements to signal processing and automatic detection algorithms [2], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14]. Recently, tomographic imaging has been employed to improve detection performance [15], [16], [17].…”

Ultra‐wideband circularly polarized crossed‐dual‐arm bowtie dipole antenna backed by an artificial magnetic conductor

“…In this context, several ultra-wideband (UWB) GPR antenna designs have been previously introduced 7 such as bowtie, 10 tapered-slot, 11 horn, 12 and Vivaldi antennas. 6,13 The bowtie design is the most dominant for the GPR systems. 7,14 Kumar et al 15 proposed a bowtie slot-monopole antenna for landmine detection applications.…”

“…9 Additionally, Akhter et al have increased the Vivaldi antenna directivity by 4.19 dB using a loaded dielectric hemisphere lens. 6 Vivaldi antenna was modified for GPR applications by Elsheakh et al, 13 achieving high average gain reaching to 17 dB beside the linear polarization characteristics.…”