A Novel Miniaturized Vivaldi Antenna Using Tapered Slot Edge With Resonant Cavity Structure for Ultrawideband Applications

Abstract

In this letter, a novel tapered slot edge with resonant cavity (TSERC) structure is adopted to improve the design of a planar printed conventional Vivaldi antenna. The proposed modified structure has the capacity to extend the low-end bandwidth limitation. In addition, the directivity and antenna gain of the TSERC structure Vivaldi antenna has been significantly improved when compared to a conventional Vivaldi antenna of the same size at lower frequencies. Compared to the conventional Vivaldi antenna, the TSERC structure lowers the gain at the higher frequencies. A prototype of the modified Vivaldi antenna was fabricated and tested. The measured results were found to be in good agreement with the simulated, which validates the feasibility of this novel design.