Improved design of the Vivaldi antenna
Ehud Gazit
Indexing terms: Antennas (travelling wave), Dielectric materials
Abstract: The Vivaldi antenna and its feeding
transition is investigated. A tapered transition
from microstrip to symmetric double sided slot
line, fabricated on a low dielectric constant sub-
strate, exhibits a very wide operating frequency
range, with no need for a shorting hole. The
parameters of the antenna which influence the
constancy of beamwidth with frequency are dis-
cussed, and the ability to determine the required
beamwidth by controlling the antenna length is
shown.
1 Introduction
The Vivaldi antenna is a member of the class of aperio-
dic, continuously scaled, gradually curved, slow leaky
end-fire travelling wave antennas [1, 2]. At different fre-
quencies, different parts of the antenna radiate, while the
size of the radiating part is constant in wavelength [1, 9].
As such, the Vivaldi antenna has theoretically unlimited
operating frequency range, with constant beamwidth
over this range.
Practically, the operating bandwidth is limited by the
transition from the feeding transmission line to the slot
line of the antenna, and by the finite dimensions of the
antenna. The constancy of the beamwidth against fre-
quency depends on the correct design of the antenna.
Thus, in the design of the Vivaldi antenna for operating
in the microwave region, there are two major subjects:
(a) The transition from the main transmission line
(usually microstrip) to a slot line, for feeding the antenna;
this should have a very wide operating frequency range
and low reflection coefficient, to match the potential of
the antenna.
(b) The dimensions and shape of the antenna, to
obtain the required beamwidth, side lobes and back
lobes, over the operating frequency range.
2 Microstrip — slot line transition
Microstrip line is in widespread use in printed circuits,
and is an unbalanced line. However, the Vivaldi antenna
is fed by a slot line which is balanced. The required balun
has to operate over a frequency range of at least two
octaves, and up to several octaves. It would be preferable
that the balun be frequency independent.
Several papers on such transitions have been
published [3, 4, 5]. In all of them, use of high dielectric
constant substrate (alumina) is described, and they
include a short hole to connect the conductors on both
Paper 5878H (Ell), first received 27 March, and in revised form 6th
August 1987
The author is with RAFALE, Armament Development Authority, PO
Box 2250, Haifa 31021, Israel
IEE PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 135, Pt. H, No. 2, APRIL 1988
sides of the substrate. We preferred to fabricate the tran-
sition and the antenna on a low dielectric constant sub-
strate, and to avoid the use of a drilled short hole. Such
transitions are well known, but they include \X sections
of transmission lines, and therefore exhibit limited band-
width.
An asymmetric one-sided slot line, fabricated on a low
dielectric constant substrate has a relatively high imped-
ance. On the other hand, symmetric double sided slot line
can be easily designed to have a low impedance [6].
Using such slot line one also avoids the necessity for the
short hole [7].
Following these guidelines, a tapered transition from
microstrip, through parallel strip line, to a symmetric
double side slot line was designed and fabricated (Fig. 1).
240
section F-F
section E- E
section D-D
section C-C
section B-B
section A-A -80 112
Fig. 1 Transition from microstrip to symmetric slot line, and Vivaldi
antenna
The microstrip, the double parallel strip, and the sym-
metric slot lines are all of 50 O impedance. The substrate
is -^2 in thick cuclad (e = 2.45), and the connector is
SSMA type. The length of the transition is about
130 mm. A Vivaldi antenna was also fabricated, and is
used as a termination to the transition. Fig. 2 shows a
plot of the reflection coefficient of the transition and the
antenna, versus frequency. The reflection is better than
—15 dB over almost one decade. The low frequency limit
is due to the limited width of the antenna which does not
radiate when its width is less than $X. The upper fre-
quency limit is due to the test limitations of the
equipment.
3 The antenna
The Vivaldi antenna was produced by widening the slot
line in a tapered exponential shape (Fig. 1). The ends of
the slot plates are curved to eliminate diffraction from
sharp ends [8]. Because of space considerations, the
radius of curvature of those ends was limited to 20 mm
only. The length of the exponential taper is 150 mm and
the maximum width is nearly 120 mm.
89
 A typical radiation pattern of the Vivaldi antenna is was measured as a function of frequency. The results are
shown in Fig. 3. The triangular pattern shape is typical in plotted in Fig. 4.
gradually curved, slow leaky-wave antennas, to which In the E plane, the constant beamwidth region starts
at a frequency at which the maximum width of the slot is
E-plane
80

,deg ree
60

40
NIL/
0
0;
20
n

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 16 18
frequency,GHz
H-plane a
140
30
120

Fig. 2 Reflection coefficient of the Vivaldi antenna (with transition) TJ

100

E- plane | 80
F.I6000 MHz
o

% 60

40

20
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 12 14 16 18
frequency, GHz
b
Fig. 4 Beamwidth against frequency of Vivaldi antenna

nearly 2X, whereas the antenna already starts to radiate

H-plane when that width is approximately \k. At higher fre-
F: 16000 MHz
quencies, the beamwidth does not remain strictly con-
stant but increases slightly. Only in shorter antennas
-10
(Fig. 5) the beamwidth at the highest frequency seems to
240
-20

-30

-40
180 120 60 0 60 120 180
degrees
b
Fig. 3 Radiation patterns of a Vivaldi antenna

family the Vivaldi antenna belongs [2]. The small ripples

on the pattern are due to the small diffraction from the
supporting devices and the too-small radius of curvature
of the antenna ends. The curved ends of the antenna are
also responsible for the creeping wave, which is expressed
as a relatively high back lobe. The slight asymmetry of
the pattern is probably due to some unbalanced mode
that reached the antenna from the 'limited length' tapered
balun, as well as to radiation from the unshielded micro-
strip line.
Fig. 5 Vivaldi antennas with different length: I 150 mm; II 110 mm;
4 Dependence of beamwidth on frequency III 80 mm; IV 60 mm

The Vivaldi antenna has, theoretically, a constant beam- stabilise (Fig. 6). The reason for this behaviour is prob-
width throughout its operating frequency range [1, 9]. ably due to incorrect shape of flare of the slot line. At the
To ascertain this, the — 3 dB beamwidth of the antenna wide end of the antenna, the slot conducting plates are
90 IEE PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 135, Pt. H, No. 2, APRIL 1988
narrow, so they do not strictly behave as a slot line. This
changes the behaviour at the low frequency range which
is radiated from the wide section. The non-unity dielec-
tric constant substrate influences the behaviour at high
frequency range, where a large fraction of the energy is in
the material. Thus, the correct shape of the widened slot
should not be an exact geometric exponent [1, 10], but a
more complex shape. However, at frequencies where the
maximum width is more than 2X, the beamwidth does
not change much, and clearly does not behave as in an
aperture antenna, but more like a travelling wave
antenna.
In the H plane, the transition from aperture-like
antenna to travelling wave-like antenna is not well
E - plane
(I)
120
defined, but at frequencies where the maximum width of
the antenna exceeds 4A, the beamwidth does not change
much. In shorter antennas, some transition can be distin-
guished at a frequency that decreases with decrease in
antenna length.
5 Dependence of beamwidth on antenna length
Four Vivaldi antennas, with different lengths, but identi-
cal feed and edge width were fabricated. The lengths of
the exponential part were 150, 110, 80 and 60 mm (Fig.
5). The beamwidth at all frequencies were measured and
plotted (Fig. 6). The beamwidth in the middle of the
nearly-constant beamwidth region (12 GHz) is plotted
H - plane
(I)
120

100 100

80 80

60 60

40

20 20

0 0

(11) (ID
100 100

80 80

60
f-4-f-i-i 60

40 40

20 ' 20

£ o £•p 0
X)

(ill) (III)
100 100

80 80

60 60

40 40

20 20

0 0
(IV)
(IV)
100 100

80 80

60 60

40 40

20 20

0 0
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 8 10 12 14 16
frequency, GHz frequency.GHz
a b
Fig. 6 Beamwidth against frequency of the four antennas shown in Fig. 5

IEE PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 135, Pt. H, No. 2, APRIL 1988 91

against the square root of the exponential taper length On the antenna side, a controlled antenna beamwidth
(Fig. 7). has been obtained by tapering the slot line in an expo-
In both E and H planes, the beamwidth varies almost nential form. The resulting beamwidth is constant over a
linearly with the reciprocal square root of the antenna wide frequency range above a threshold frequency, and is
dependent on the antenna length. The values experimen-
90 tally obtained lie in the range 45°-85°, in four different
80 antennas, with longer antenna providing narrower
70 beams. It is expected that the beamwidth stability with
£ 60
frequency in a single antenna may be improved by a
more sophisticated taper design, along the guide lines dis-
1*50 cussed in this paper.
| 40
It was found necessary to curve the ends of the
| 30 antenna in order to reduce side-lobes. It is expected that
back-lobes may be further reduced by means of a wider
n
.o curve in conjunction with an absorbing material at the
10
outer edges of the antenna.
12
60 80 110 150"
length 7 References
Fig. 7 Beamwidths at 12 GHz of the four Vivaldi antennas shown in 1 GIBSON, P.J.: 'The Vivaldi aerial'. Proc. 9th European. Microwave
Fig. 5. Conference, 1979, pp. 101-105
2 KOLBERG, E.L., JOHANSON, J., THUNGREN, T., KORZE-
NIOWSKI, T.L., and YNGVESSON, K.S.: 'New results on tapered
length. The E plane beamwidth may be determined at slot endfire antennas on dielectric substrate', IEEE 8th Inter. Conf.
any desired value over a wide range 45°-85°, according on Infrared and Millimeter Waves, U.S.A., 1983, p. F3.6/1-2
to the antenna length. At H plane, the beamwidth is 3 DE RONDE, F.C.: 'A new class of microstrip directional couplers'.
smaller (25°-45°) but the ratio of beamwidths of the long Digest of Tech., Papers, 6-MTT Symp., 1970, pp. 184-189
4 SCHIEK, B., and KOHLER, J.: 'An improved microstrip-to-
and short antennas is much the same as in E plane. microslot transition'. IEEE Trans. M.T.T., 1976, pp. 231-233
5 NIGHTINGALE, S.J., BATES, R.N., GIBSON, P.J., and CHUA,
L.W.: Microwave Balun. U.K. Patent, GB 2057196B.
6 Conclusions 6 GVOZDEV, V.I., 'Use of the unbalanced slotted line in S.H.F.
microcircuits', Radio Eng. & Electron. Phys., 1982, 27, (11), p. 42
Two major design aspects of the Vivaldi-type travelling 7 VAN HEUVEN, J.H.C.: 'A new integrated waveguide — microstrip
wave antenna have been presented and discussed: the transition', IEEE Trans. M.T.T., 1976, pp. 144-146
feeding transition and the dimension and shape of the 8 BAKER, D.E., and VAN DER NEUT, C.A.: 'A compact, broad-
tapered slot antenna. band, balanced transmission line antenna derived from double-
ridged waveguide'. 1982 APS Inter. Symp. Digest Antennas and
The transition has been done by tapering the micro- Propag., 1982, U.S.A., 2, pp. 568-571
strip line through parallel strip to an asymmetric, double- 9 YNGVESSON, K.S., SCHAUBERT, D.H., KORZENIOWSKI,
sided slot line. The feed transition thus obtained exhibits T.L., KOLLBERG, EX., THUNGREN, T., and JOHANSSON,
a low reflection coefficient over a very wide frequency J.F.: 'Endfire tapered slot antenna on dielectric substrate', IEEE
Trans. A.P., 1985, AP-33, (12), pp. 1392-1400
range, typically greater than a decade. The transition is 10 BEYER, A.: 'Millimeterwave antenna in finline technique'. IEE
printed on a low dielectric constant substrate without Third Int. Conf. Ant. Propag., ICAP '83, U.K., April 12-15, 1983,
any need for a shorting hole. Part 1, pp. 44-46

92 IEE PROCEEDINGS, Vol. 135, Pt. H, No. 2, APRIL 1988