TEM HORN ANTENNA FOR GROUND PENETRATING APPLICATIONS

Abstract

A TEM HORN Antenna is presented in this paper. This antenna is designed for GPR applications. This antenna is suitable for this application due to its compact transition section and possesses a wide bandwidth, good radiation characteristic, and easy integration with microwave circuits. Two specially tapered metal flares have been designed to make a wideband characteristic and reduce the reflection. To overcome aperture reflections at low frequencies and unbalanced aperture field at higher frequencies, an arc surface is added at the end of the flare plates, and an absorbing material is loaded on the outer surface of the flare section. Measured results show that the presented antenna has a wide bandwidth from 0.83 to more than 12.8 GHz under a return loss 10 dB, small input reflection, a moderate gain from 0 dBi at 0.83 GHz to ≤ 10 dBi at 12 GHz, and a good radiation characteristics in the time domain, which can be suitable for ground penetrating radar (GPR) applications.