Ultrawide band cage dipole antenna for ultra high frequency band ground penetrating radar system

Abstract

This paper presents ultrawide band (UWB) Cage Dipole Antenna, designed and developed for ultra high frequency band ground penetrating radar (GPR) system. The presented cage antenna consists of two thick diverging cages composed of 10 cylindrical metallic rods. It operates at 500 MHz center frequency and provides 105% impedance bandwidth for |S11| <−10 dB. Antenna has donut‐shaped radiation pattern and provides 2.6‐dBi gain at center frequency. Impedance variation of designed Cage dipole antenna has been matched using wideband lumped component‐based balanced to unbalanced (Balun) network. Integrated analysis of cage dipole antenna and Balun network has been carried out in 3D electromagnetic simulator and analyzed results are presented. Moreover, metallic mount with Teflon bush has been designed to support the cage dipole antenna during far‐field characterization and its effect has also been taken into account during the analysis. Time‐domain analysis of proposed Cage dipole has been carried out and its results are presented in detail. Presented cage dipole antenna provides suppressed late ringing, making it best suitable for GPR applications.