An UWB Tapered Slot Vivaldi Antenna (TSA) with

Improved Characterestics
Youness Akazzim¹, Mohammed Kanjaa¹, Otman EL Mrabet¹, Luis Jofre², and Mohamed Essaaidi¹
1
Telecommunication Systems Lab
Abdelmalek Essaadi University
Tetouan, Morocco
oelmrabet@uae.ac.ma
² AntennaLab, CommSensLAB, UPC
Barcelona, Spain
luis.jofre@upc.edu

Abstract— In this paper, an UWB Tapered Slot Vivaldi
Antenna (TSA) is presented. The proposed TSA is optimized in
order to increase the bandwidth and ensure a good impedance
matching at low and bandwidth frequencies while respecting
the low profile. The overall size of simulated antenna is
45×40×0.8 mm3. This antenna is designed in order to be used in
bio medical application and some other radar based
microwave imaging.
Keywords— UWB; TSA; Vivaldi Antenna; Breast cancer
detection; microwave imaging.
I. INTRODUCTION
The implementation of microwave techniques in
biomedical instrumentation has known a renewed interest
lately [1], whether it is in imaging systems [2-3] or in
thermal ablation procedures [4], this technology has been
proven effective and low cost compared to other methods.
This technology is based on non-ionizing
electromagnetic waves, hence it doesn’t carry the usual
drawbacks of the X-ray tomography, instead it uses very
short electromagnetic pulses. The main idea behind the
microwave imaging system is that the permittivity and
conductivity of the healthy tissue is lower than those of the
tumorous one [5], the presence of the latter would reflect the
pulses, and by using the adequate algorithm the
backscattered signal gives the exact location of the tumor.
The microwave imaging systems operate in ultra-short
impulse mode, emitting and receiving sharp pulses, which
translated to frequency domain results in a multi frequency
mode, therefore the need of antennas that have a stable
performance and that can ensure a good matching over a
wide frequency range.
Because of its wide band matching The Vivaldi
antenna meets perfectly the requisites of such a system, its
working principle was first presented by Gibson in [6] and is
based on a traveling wave mechanism produced by higher
order Henkel functions modes traveling on the curved
profile of the tapered antenna. The geometrical basis of its
wide band matching is given in [7], by the theory developed
by Rumsey for the frequency independent antennas also
known as the scaling principle. Stating that an antenna has
the same performance of its scaled copy when fed by a
current source which wavelength is scaled by the same
factor.
Since then, many new UWB antennas were developed,
mainly for microwave imaging. Structures such as
Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna (AVA) [8][9][10], Balanced
Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna (BAVA)[11] and Tapered Slot
Antenna Vivaldi (TSA)[12][13], achieved significant
improvement on the major weakness of the Vivaldi antenna
: its low gain.
In this work, a Tapered Slot Vivaldi (TSA) antenna
with a good impedance matching even at the lower
frequency of the working frequency range is proposed.
II. ANTENNA DESIGN
The TSA presented in this work is fed by a microstrip, in
this antenna structure the bandwidth is influenced by three
factors:
1. The feeding network and the radial stub at its end
2. The size of the substrate.
3. The shape of the taper.
Figure 1 presents the designed TSA developed in this
work; the structure is printed on Rogers Duroid TM
substrate with e r = 2.2 and 0.8 mm thickness.
(a) (b)
Figure 1: Design of proposed Tapered Slot Vivaldi Antenna.
The overall dimension of the antenna which were
optimized with the commercial simulator CST microwave
3
studio are 45×40×0.8 mm ; the optimal dimensions of the
different parts of the antenna are
æ w = 40mm, L = 45mm, rc = 9mm, a = 1mm, r = 5mm, n = 0.119, ö
ç ÷
è alpha = 120° and Wf = 2.12mm ø
this antenna is designed to operate in the frequency range
2.364 -14.655 GHz.

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 The Top view of the antenna two exponentials tapered
slot which guides the wave to the end of the antenna’s
length. The two exponentials profile curves are given by the 0 S11(dB)
following equation:

y ( x ) = a ´ en´ x -10

S11 (dB)
Where n is the opening rate factor and y indicates the
coordinates of the points of the outer edge of the patch on -20
the y axis.
The feeding mechanism of the tapered slot antenna is
based on a coupling via microstrip to slot line transition[9]. -30
To achieve ultra-wideband performance the feed line ends
with a radial stub defined by an angle alpha and a radius r.
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Frequency(GHz)
Figure 3: simulated S parameter of TSA.

10

0
Gain(dB)

Figure 2: final design of Vivaldi TSA. -5

III. SIMULATION RESULT -10

In this section we present the simulation results for the
-15
tapered slot Vivaldi antenna over the frequency range 0-15
GHz. -20 Gain(dB)
Figure 3 illustrates the S11 parameter of the antenna, it is
clear that the TSA of this study provide ultra-wide band -25
performance since the lower end frequency matching 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
( S11 < -10dB ) is located at 2.346 GHz and the upper limit Frequency(GHz)
is at 14.655 GHz the relative bandwidth calculated using Figure 4: variation of gain over frequency.
following equation [14]: The figure 4 we depict the variation of gain along
the operating band [2.25-7.75] dB, the maximum value
f max - f min is 7.94dB at f = 14GHz .
BP% = 2 ´ ´100
f max + f min As we can see in the figure the results obtained
show a good adaptation of the reflection coefficient
Where f max and f min are the maximum and minimum
( S11 ) (less than -10 dB) over a very wide frequency band.
frequencies of bandwidth is of 144.43%.
.

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 14 l=25mm
l=30mm
12 l=35mm
l=40mm
l=45mm
10

Gain(dB)
8

0
2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Frequency(GHz)
Figure 7: variation of gain over frequency for constant length.

-10
Figure 5: directivity at different points of frequency band.
-20
IV. PARAMETRIC STUDY:
S11(dB)

To determine the effect of the different antenna

-30
parameters on its performance, a parametric study was
carried out. w=20mm
In figure 6 and 7 we can see that the minimum frequency -40 w=25mm
w=35mm
with the increase of the length l but the value of the return w=40mm
w=45mm
loss increases on the other hand the gain is better for higher -50
values of l .The optimal results were obtained for a
length l = 25mm . 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Figure 8 and figure 9 show that the increase of the width Frequency(GHz)
of the antenna gives higher gain at higher frequencies and an Figure 8: variation of S11 over frequency for constant width.
optimal value of the return loss.
And for the last parameter, the opening rate factor n , 15
figure 10 and 11 show that the optimal value of S11 is
obtained by increasing n, but with a negative effect the gain. 10

0
Gain(dB)

-10 0
w=20mm
w=25mm
S11(dB)

w=35mm
-5 w=40mm
-20 w=45mm

L=25 mm -10
L=30 mm
-30 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
L=35 mm
L=40 mm
L=45 mm
Frequency(GHz)
Figure 9: variation of gain over frequency for constant width.
-40
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Frequency(GHz)
Figure 6: variation of return loss in function of frequency for constant
length.

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 J. (2012, June). Microwave tomography techniques
0
and algorithms: A review. In 2012 15 International
Symposium on Antenna Technology and Applied
Electromagnetics (pp. 1-4). IEEE.
-10
[4] Ji, Z., & Brace, C. L. (2011). Expanded modeling of
temperature-dependent dielectric properties for
-20 microwave thermal ablation. Physics in Medicine &
S11(dB)

Biology, 56(16), 5249.

-30 [5] C. K. Kuhl et al., “Mammography, breast
ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging for
-40 n=0.05 surveillance of women at high familial risk for
n=0.09
n=0.1 breast cancer,” J. Clin. Oncol., vol. 23, no. 33, pp.
n=0.1198
-50 n=0.2
8469–8476, 2005.
[6] Gibson, P. J. (1979, September). The vivaldi aerial.
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 In 1979 9th European Microwave Conference (pp.
Frequency(GHz) 101-105). IEEE.
Figure 10: variation of S11 over frequency for constant n. [7] Chiappe, M., & Gragnani, G. L. (2006). Vivaldi
antennas for microwave imaging: Theoretical
analysis and design considerations. IEEE
10
Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement,
8 55(6), 1885-1891.]
[8] M. Kanjaa, O. El Mrabet, M. Khalladi, and M.
6 Essaaidi, “Exponentially tapered antipodal Vivaldi
4
antenna for breast cancer detection,” Mediterr.
S11(dB)

Microw. Symp., vol. 2015-Janua, pp. 3–5, 2015.

2 [9] A. M. De Oliveira, M. B. Perotoni, S. T. Kofuji, and
J. F. Justo, “A palm tree Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna
0
n=0.05 with exponential slot edge for improved radiation
n=0.09
-2 n=0.1
pattern,” IEEE Antennas Wirel. Propag. Lett., vol.
n=0.1198 14, no. c, pp. 1334–1337, 2015.
-4 n=0.2
[10] M. T. Islam, M. Samsuzzaman, M. T. Islam, S.
Kibria, and M. J. Singh, “A homogeneous breast
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
phantom measurement system with an improved
Frequency(GHz) modified microwave imaging antenna sensor,”
Figure 11: variation of gain over frequency for constant n. Sensors (Switzerland), vol. 18, no. 9, 2018.
V. CONCLUSION [11] J. Bourqui, M. Okoniewski, and E. C. Fear,
“Balanced antipodal vivaldi antenna with dielectric
In this paper, a new UWB Vivaldi antenna with low director for near-field microwave imaging,” IEEE
profile and broadband from [2.364-14.655] GHz, and peak Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 58, no. 7, pp. 2318–
band of [2.25-7.75] (dB) was presented. This antenna is 2326, 2010.
suitable for medical imaging applications such as breast [12] D. Z. Kerarti, “Réseau d’antennes Vivaldi à
cancer detection which is the subject of this paper, and ultra- transition conique TSA pour des applications Ultra
wide band radio communications. Large Bande ULB,” no. September, 2016.
[13] M. T. Islam, M. Z. Mahmud, N. Misran, J. I.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Takada, and M. Cho, “Microwave Breast Phantom
Measurement System with Compact Side Slotted
This work was supported by the Moroccan Ministry of Directional Antenna,” IEEE Access, vol. 5, no. c,
Higher Education (MESRSFC) and the CNRST pp. 5321–5330, 2017.
under grant number PPR2/2015/36. [14] T. Lim and L. Zhu, “Compact Microstrip-to-CPS
Transition,” IEEE MTT-S Int. Microw. Work. Ser.
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