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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 40, NO. 7, JULY 1992

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A Novel Antenna for Ultra-Wide-Band Applications


Albert K. Y. Lai, Albert L. Sinopoli, and Walter D. Burnside, Fellow, ZEEE
Abstract-An ultra-wide-band antenna based on a slotline feed structure, a bowtie horn, and a rolled edge termination was developed, analyzed and measured. Empirical data showed that its beamwidths and bandwidth are dependent on its physical dimensions which are easily controllable by an antenna designer. Measured patterns of models with various radiation properties are shown to substantiate these design rules. A flat plateau-like main beam, low voltage standing-wave ratio (VSWR), the ability to produce both wide (60")and narrow (30") half-power beamwidths, low sidelobes and backlobe (40-50 dB down), low cross-polarized levels (20-25 dB down), and independent control of E- and H-plane beamwidths over an ultrawide bandwidth, say 2-18 GHz, are some of the strong points of this new antenna type.

SIDE VIEW

DIELE~TRIC SUBSTRATE

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Fig. 1. Slotline geometry.

I. INTRODUCTION OR many years, the idea of an ultra-wide-band an- slot-mode wavelength is small (inversely proportional to tenna that would allow stable pattern control over and the fields are closely confined to the slot [l], many frequency decades seemed elusive at best. The making it a very efficient and balanced transmission line. potential applications are, however, quite plentiful. When As a result, it is ideal for use as filters, couplers and other used with a pulsed radar system of sufficient power, it is circuit applications, often with microstrip circuitry on the claimed that an ultra-wide-band antenna can possibly other side of the circuit board; in which case, the slotline detect stealth targets. In a radar cross section (RCS) metal surfaces serve as the microstrip's ground plane. range, a single ultra-wide-band antenna can replace a When the dielectric constant is small, the fields tend to large set of narrow-band antennas that are normally used radiate more readily at discontinuities. With the slot to cover the whole frequency band of interest. It is also opening up in various ways, the slotline becomes an useful in satellite communications where wide-band feeds effective endfire microwave integrated circuit (MIC) ancan save space and weight by supporting many communi- tenna [2], as shown in Fig. 2. cation channels with just one antenna. However, one does The bowtie antenna is a flat plate variation of the not want to sacrifice gain, directivity, beamshape, sidelobe biconical antenna, which is known for its wide-band capalevels and other antenna properties for the sake of wide- bility. Although it is usually used in the form of a dipole, band performance. It would be ideal if one could design the application here requires that the two plates be bent an ultra-wide-band antenna with performance similar to together to form a horn-like structure for higher gain and or even better than that of a horn antenna. Developing directivity, as shown in Fig. 3. Theoretically the bowtie such an antenna is the goal of this paper. antenna is very broad band; however, in practice, it is The antenna proposed here is a combination of two difficult to find an equally broad-band and balanced feed antenna concepts: a slotline circuit board antenna and a structure. bowtie horn. The bowtie horn is known for its broad-band In this paper, these two antenna concepts are put radiation pattern; whereas, the slotline antenna provides a together to form a novel antenna type that is wide-band broad-band and balanced feed structure. with easily controllable E- and H-plane beamwidths. The slotline is a slot between two metal plates and is 11. ULTRA-WIDE-BAND FEED normally mounted on top of a dielectric substrate as shown in Fig. 1. When the dielectric constant is large, the To feed the slotline antenna, one needs to supply power to the slotline from a source generator via a coaxial cable Manuscript received December 4, 1990; revised February 6, 1992. This work was supported in part by Grant NSG-1613 from NASA Langley and/or a microstrip line. However, the coaxial cable and Research Center, Hampton, VA, and in part by the ElectroScience microstrip line are unbalanced transmission lines, and the Laboratory Compact Range Consortium. slotline is a balanced one. Hence some kind of balun is The authors are with the ElectroScience Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43212. needed for the transition between the microstrip and slotline transmission line. IEEE Log Number 9200777.

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0018-926X3/92$03.00 0 1992 IEEE

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IEEE TRANSACTIONSON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 40, NO. 7, JULY 1992

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LINEAR TAPER
SLOTLINE ANTENNA

VIVALDI TAPER
SLOTLINE ANTENNA

CONSTANT WIDTE SLOTLINE ANTENNA

Fig. 2. Slotline antennas.

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PULTE ANGLE
BICONICAL ANTENNA BOWTIE ANTENNA
FOLDED BOWTIE ANTENNA

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ELARS ANGLE

Fig. 5. Standing-wave ratio of the improved Y-Y transition.

Fig. 3 . Bowtie antennas.

values fluctuating around 1.3 from 12 to 20 GHz. Only below 1 GHz does it rise above 1.3 to a maximum value of 1.6. This low frequency reflection was found to come from the slotline open circuit and could possibly be improved by further tuning. The improved Y-Y transition therefore has tremendous bandwidth and provides the crucial prerequisite; i.e., a wide-band feed to supply power to the ultra-wide-band antenna. 111. ULTRA-WIDE-BAND RADIATION With the wide-band feed, power can now travel down the slot line transmission line which is intrinsically balanced and very wide band. As the slotline begins to open up, it tends to radiate when the slotline separation width is at least 0.4h as stated in [5]. If one tapers the slotline antenna using a Vivaldi exponential concept, Gibson [61 has shown that one can maintain a relatively constant beamwidth over a few octaves. Nevertheless, if these slotline concepts are pushed to cover the 2-18 GHz band, for example, they will tend to fail as shown in [4]. It is at this point where the bowtie horn comes into play. As noted before, the bowtie antenna provides wide-band radiation capability, but it suffers from the lack of a balanced and wide-band feed. The logical next step is then to put these two antennas together as shown in Fig. 6. The bowtie antenna is simply soldered onto a slotline antenna of the same flaring shape. Notice that the rolled edge terminations at the end of the bowtie are added to minimize edge diffractions. In addition, the interior of the antenna is filled with absorber to attenuate unwanted radiation in terms of bouncing rays.
OF PARAMETERS IV. VARIATION

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Fig. 4. Improved Y-Y transition: an ultra-wide-band feed structure.

An improved version of a Y-Y transition with a larger

slotline open circuit than originally used by Schiek and Kohler [31 is shown in Fig. 4. Note that increasing the size of the slotline open circuit improved its lower frequency performance. Using this concept, the slotline is cut in the ground plane of the microstrip line, such that they are on opposite sides of the dielectric substrate. The voltage standing-wave ratio (VSWR) of the improved Y-Y transition measured by an HP8510 network analyzer, is shown in Fig. 5. Note that the average VSWR is around 1.2, with

In all the examples considered in this paper, the slotline was tapered initially to form a Vivaldi exponential to provide a gradual transition for impedance purposes. Then the slotline expands in a linear fashion at a specified flare and terminates in a rolled edge. The slotline and bowtie antenna join together starting at the beginning of the Vivaldi taper section. Once the basic antenna configuration was formed, experiments were carried out to investigate its properties. The E-plane beamwidth of this an-

LA1 et al.: NOVEL ANTENNA FOR ULTRA-WIDE-BAND APPLICATIONS

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Fig. 7. E-plane 10 dB beamwidth versus flare angle for a 6 in long version. Based on pattern data from 4 to 18 GHz.
BOWTIE ANTENNA ROLLED WITH TERMINATION
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Fig. 6. The slotline/bowtie hybrid (SBH) antenna.
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tenna was found empirically to be dependent on its flare angle. Fig. 7 shows the 10 dB beamwidth versus flare angle for a 6 in long version of this antenna. From the figure, one should notice that when the flare angle is increased, the E-plane beamwidth increases in a simpler linear fashion. The H-plane beamwidth was likewise found empirically to be dependent on the plate angle of the bowtie section. Fig. 8 shows the 10 dB beamwidth versus plate angle for a 6 in long version of this antenna. Again one should observe that increasing the plate angle increases the H-plane pattern beamwidth in a linear fashion. The bandwidth of this new antenna is dependent on the length of the bowtie plate. The lower frequency limit is dependent on the length of the plate and the flare angle of the bowtie. The narrower the bowtie plate angle, the larger the plate must be to maintained the desired pattern shape. The rolled edge termination should be in the form of an ellipse with an aspect ratio of say, 4 : 1, and a minimum radius of curvature greater than a quarter wavelength at the lowest frequency [7]. At higher frequencies, there seems to be no limit apart from physical smoothness of the antenna and the bandwidth limit of the microstrip to slotline feed described earlier. V. DESIGN EXAMPLES Four examples are shown here to demonstrate the design freedom an antenna designer can achieve with this new antenna type. The first three cases demonstrate what one can do to the E-plane beamwidth and bandwidth, while keeping the H-plane beamwidth and beamshape relatively constant. They show that a very wide E-plane pattern with a 60" half-power beamwidth and a flat plateau-like mainbeam is attainable. The last example is a symmetric narrow beam antenna with 30" half-power beamwidth which demonstrates H-plane pattern control

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30

60

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BOWTIE PLATE ANGLE

Fig. 8. H-plane 10 dB beamwidth versus plate angle for a 6 in long version. Based on pattern data from 4 to 18 GHz.

and how narrow the beam can be in both planes. All four antennas have rolled edge terminations: the first two circular (not as desirable but sufficient to show pattern control) and the last two elliptic with an aspect ratio of 4 : 1. Note that absorber has been placed in all of the antennas to remove unwanted radiation. One should keep in mind that the absorber caused no more than a dB reduction in the efficiency of the antenna. The first antenna is a 7 in version with a 45" flare angle and a 45" plate angle. The E- and H-plane patterns at 3, 10, and 17 GHz are, respectively, shown in Figs. 9, 10, and 11. The E-plane half-power beamwidth is about 36" with the H-plane beamwidth being 45". Note how the beamshape remains fairly constant for all frequencies. This is a very desirable characteristic of the bowtie horn with rolled edges. In addition, the sidelobes and the backlobe are very low with the backlobe being about 50 dB down in most cases. The second example is a 7 in version with a 60" flare angle and the same plate angle as the first one (45"). The E-plane patterns at 3, 10, and 17 GHz are, respectively, shown in Figs. 12,13, and 14 (H-plane patterns are similar to the last ones since the plate angle is unchanged). The E-plane half-power beamwidth is about 45". In this case, the E-plane main beam tends to narrow a few degrees at the higher frequencies. This is caused by the Vivaldi exponential section which is too wide such that radiation occurs before the linear flare angle starts. As a result, the high frequency radiation comes from a creeping wave on

758

IEEE TRANSACTIONSON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 40, NO. 7, JULY 1992

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ANGLE (DEGREES) Fig. 9. E- and H-plane patterns of first example at 3 GHz.

ANGLE (DEGREES) Fig. 13. E-plane pattern of second example at 10 GHz.

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ANGLE (DEGREES) Fig. 10. E- and H-plane patterns of first example at 10 GHz.

ANGLE (DEGREES) Fig. 14. E-plane pattern of second example at 17 GHz.

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ANGLE (DEGREES) Fig. 12. E-plane pattern of second example at 3 GHz.

this curved section which effectively causes a pattern narrowing. As seen before, the sidelobes and backlobe are very low. The third example is a 21 in version with a 60" flare angle and the same 45" plate angle. This version is about three times longer than the previous two examples and has a more gradual elliptic rolled edge termination to demonstrate the added bandwidth and improved beamshape that comes with increased plate length and a better termination. Another way to look at this case is to view it as a scale model of the previous antenna which shows what its patterns would look like at three times the frequency; i.e., up to 60 GHz. The E-plane patterns at 3, 10 and 17 GHz are, respectively, shown in Figs. 15, 16, and 17 (H-plane patterns are similar to the first example since the plate angle is unchanged). In this case, the E-plane half-power beamwidth is about 60", and the main beam is amazingly flat so that constant illumination over wide angles is possible. The sidelobes and backlobe are again very low. The fourth example is a 21 in version with a 30" flare angle and a 30" plate angle. This version demonstrates how a narrow beam can be produced by simply reducing the flare angle (for E-plane) and the plate angle (for H-plane). The E- and H-plane patterns at 3, 10, and 17 GHz are, respectively, shown in Figs. 18, 19, and 20. Note that the E-plane half-power beamwidth is about 30"; while, the H-plane half-power beamwidth is also about 30". At higher frequencies the E-plane main beam decays

W et al.: NOVEL ANTENNA FOR ULTRA-WIDE-BAND APPLICATIONS

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ANGLE (DEGREES) Fig. 15. E-plane pattern of third example at 3 GHz.

ANGLE (DEGREES) Fig. 19. E- and H-plane patterns of fourth example at 10 GHz.

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ANGLE (DEGREES) Fig. 16. E-plane pattern of third example at 10 GHz.

ANGLE (DEGREES) Fig. 20. E- and N-plane patterns of fourth example at 17 GHz.

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more rapidly, but as shown by the 3 dB line, the half-power beamwidth is still maintained more or less the same as in the H-plane. As seen in all cases, the sidelobes and backlobe are very low. Two additional pattern issues that have to be addressed are the cross-polarized radiation levels and the gain loss associated with the absorber. After examining the crosspolarization levels for numerous cases, it was found to be basically the same for all designs and all pattern cuts, including the diagonal pattern. As a result, typical examples of cross polarization versus frequency and cross polarization versus angle are shown in Figs. 21(a) and 21(b), respectively. Note that the cross-polarized levels are at least 20 dB below the co-polarized radiation, which is normally very satisfactory. In terms of the absorber issue, it was found that the gain changed by no more than a decibel when the absorber was added to the antenna interior for all configurations and frequencies tested. The last major issue is the VSWR performance of this new slotline/bowtie hybrid (SBH) antenna. Again, it was found that basically all configurations were the same; thus, only a typical example is shown here (see Fig. 22(b)). Note that when the antenna is constructed properly, the VSWR is better than 2 : 1 across the 2-18 GHz frequency band. VI. CONCLUSION This paper has presented a novel antenna configuration, the slotline/bowtie hybrid, which is fed by a new

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ANGLE (DEGREES) Fig. 18. E- and H-plane patterns of fourth example at 3 GHz.

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AM> PROPAGATION, VOL. 40, NO. 7, JULY 1992

power beamwidths, low sidelobes and backlobe (40 to 50 dB down), stable patterns across the frequency bandwidth, and independent control of E- and H-plane beamwidths. These attributes have been measured from 2-18 GHz based on available hardware; however, it is expected that these antennas can be used over even broader bandwidths. For higher frequencies, the antenna would have to be constructed using more exact techniques because the finer features become more significant. A future paper will address these issues.

REFERENCES
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[l] S. B. Cohn, Slot-line field components, IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. MIT-20, pp. 172-174, Feb. 1972. [2] K. S. Yngvesson, T. L. Korzeniowski, Y.-S. Kim, E. L. Kollberg and J. F. Johansson, The tapered slot antenna-A new integrated element for millimeter-wave application, ZEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. 37, pp. 365-374, Feb. 1989. [3] B. Schiek and J. Kohler, An improved microstrip-to-microslot transition, IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., vol. MTT-24, pp. 231-233, Apr. 1976. [4] A. Lai, A novel antenna for ultra-wideband applications, Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. Elec. Eng., Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH, 1990. [5] S. N. Prasad and S. Mahapatra, A new MIC slot-line aerial, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-31, pp. 525-527, May 1983. [6] P. J. Gibson, The Vivaldi aerial, in Proc. 9th European Microwave Conf., Sept. 1979, pp. 101-105. [7] D. J. Heedy and W. D. Burnside, An aperture-matched compact range feed horn design, IEEE Trans. Antennas Propagat., vol. AP-33, pp. 1249-1255, NOV.1985.

ANGLE (DEGREES)
(b)

Fig. 21. (a) Boresight cross-polarization levels versus frequency. (b) Cross-polarization levels versus angle.
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Albert K. Y . h i , for a photograph and biography please see page 1171 of the September 1989 issue of this TRANSACTIONS.

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Albert L . Sinpoli (S86-M89-S91) was born in


Norristown, PA. He received the B.S.E.E. degree from Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, in 1988 and the M.S.E.E. degree from The Ohio State University, Columbus, in 1992. From 1985 to 1987, he worked as a cooperative engineering assistant with the American Electronics Laboratory Antenna Department, Lansdale, PA, and the IBM Antenna and Receiver Department, Owego, NY. From 1988 to 1989, he worked as an R F Test Engineer for AT & T Microelectronics, Reading, PA. From 1989 to 1990, he worked as an Antenna Engineer with Celwave RF, Marlboro, NJ. Since 1990, he has been working at the ElectroScience Laboratory as a Graduate Research Associate in pursuit of the M.S.E.E. degree. Currently, his work includes the improvement and design of reflector feed antennas to improve compact range system performance.

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FREQUENCY (GHz) Fig. 22. Typical VSWR of a properly constructed SBH antenna.

improved ultra-wide-band feed. Experiments and actual design examples show it to be ultra-wide-band with a low standing wave ratio, flat plateau-like main beam, the ability to produce both wide (60) and narrow (30) half-

Walter D. Burnside (S69-M72-SM82-F85), for a photograph and biography please see page 1171 of the September 1989 issue of this TRANSACTIONS.

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