Reduced‐size UWB uniplanar tapered slot antennas without and with corrugations

Abstract

AbstractThis paper presents the design of compact uniplanar Tapered Slot Antennas (TSAs) without and with corrugations for operation in an ultra wide band (UWB) of 3.1–10.6 GHz.In the initial step, a conventional size‐reduced uniplanar TSA with an exponential taper is designed. The analysis of its radiation pattern shows that this TSA exhibits reduced directivity in the lower part of UWB. To overcome this shortfall, two modifications are investigated. One includes an introduction of constant or variable‐length narrow corrugations and the other one making elliptical cuts on conducting sides of the TSA. The modified TSAs maintain the initial UWB impedance characteristics. However, their behavior differs with respect to the radiation pattern and gain. The TSA with constant‐length corrugations shows similar radiation pattern characteristics as it's non‐modified predecessor while the TSA with variable‐length corrugations exhibits an almost constant directive radiation pattern across UWB. The gain of these two antennas oscillates with frequency leading to pulse distortion. The TSA with elliptical conductor cuts shows both constant directive properties and distortionless pulse transmission. This is confirmed by full‐wave EM simulations and measurements. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 53:830–836, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.25878