Research on ultra-wide band planar Vivaldi antenna array

Planar Vivaldi antenna, with attractive performance compared with conventional TEM horn antennas, was introduced and used to form array. Normalized radiation energy pattern was adopted to characterize the transmit and receive behavior of ultra-wide-band (UWB) antenna array. Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) was used to analyze the array. Radiation energy pattern in H plane was measured in outdoor region, for the difficulty of installing, E plane pattern was not measured. Measured and simulated results indicate that the planar Vivaldi antenna array can be used in the practical UWB radar and communication system, which can increase the gain, as it has narrow beam width. (C) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.