volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

In this paper, an antipodal Vivaldi antenna (AVA) with lower cutoff frequency is proposed based on spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPPs) and corrugated edges. Firstly, the gradient slots are etched on the external edges of two radiation arms of the conventional antipodal Vivaldi antenna. As a result, the cutoff frequency at the low frequency side will decrease slightly because the surface current path of the antenna is increased. More importantly, the SSPPs structure with identical units is etched on the inner side of two radiation arms, resulting in a large reduction of the cutoff frequency for the larger propagation constant of the SSPPs structure compared with radiation arms of the conventional antipodal Vivaldi antenna. Additionally, SSPPs structure on the stripline ensures good momentum matching and mode matching between quasi-TEM mode and SSPPs mode. Besides, to improve the gain at the high frequency region of the operation band, the introduced SSPPs structure on the inner side of two radiation arms is further optimized by varying groove depths. Experimental results demonstrate that the designed antipodal Vivaldi antenna exhibits a good radiation performance with a low cutoff frequency of 2.8 GHz and a maximum gain of 9.3 dBi.

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Dr. Baoping Ren

Dr. Chenguang Zhao

Prof. Xuehui Guan

Dr. Shaopeng Wan