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A Reduced-size Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna with a Recongurable Band Notch

L. Safatly, M. Al-Husseini, A. El-Hajj, and K. Y. Kabalan ECE Department, American University of Beirut, Beirut 1107 2020, Lebanon

Abstract The paper presents the design and the implementation of a reduced-size antipodal
Vivaldi antenna with a recongurable band notch. The antenna could be mainly used for UWB applications since it covers a very wide frequency band. It is also suitable for Cognitive Radio (CR) systems because it is capable to sense the spectrum to determine the bands used by primary users, and to communicate pulses that ensure interference avoidance to primary users. For that, a recongurable band stop lter, based on three nested complementary split-ring resonators (CSRRs), is integrated on the ground plane. The band notch occurs at 3.5 GHz, 5.2 GHz or 7.3 GHz, and is controlled using electronic switches. 1. INTRODUCTION

The emerging broadband wireless communications and the huge number of medical and military applications have put increasing demand on a technology suitable for high data rates in small distances. For that, the Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) [1] protocol has been gaining a lot of attention. According to FCC regulations, UWB spectrum is limited between from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz. In the UWB environment, the transmitter and receiver antennas must be compact and lightweight and characterized by a gain stability, low distortion and low delays. Vivaldi antennas represent an adequate candidate to these types of communications [2, 3] since they are listed as frequency independent antennas. In [4], the antipodal Vivaldi antenna is introduced and its broadband characteristic is highlighted. Although antipodal Vivaldi antennas satisfy UWB requirements, their dimensions are normally greater than 10 cm. Therefore, size reduction of those UWB antennas is very challenging and was investigated by several researchers to include further enhancement on the size and on the bandwidth. In [5], a compact directive antipodal Vivaldi antenna is designed with dimensions of 52 52 mm2 . Also, a miniaturized 32 35 mm2 antipodal Vivaldi antenna is introduced in [6]. On the other hand, the current crowding of unlicensed spectra necessitates urgent solutions. Cognitive Radio (CR) [7] is a promising technology to solve the shortage problem and exploit the existing spectrum in a revolutionized way. In a CR environment, unlicensed users are allowed to share the frequency resources with the licensed or primary users. For that, CR implementations pave the way to new challenges in recongurable antenna design and RF front ends in general. The essential requirement in recongurability is to maintain a constant gain at dierent resonant frequencies. This could be achieved by integrating a recongurable lter within the antenna structure [8]. The antenna surface current distribution will not be aected and hence the radiation pattern will be preserved. The lter will modify adequately the bandwidth of the antenna by adding frequency nulls at desired frequencies. In this paper, the design and the implementation of a reduced-size antipodal Vivaldi antenna is presented. The antenna is equipped by a recongurable lter engraved on its feed line. The overall lter-antenna system provides a UWB response with a recongurable frequency band notch.
2. ANTENNA CONFIGURATION

As depicted in Figure 1, the designed Vivaldi antipodal antenna is printed on a 60 35 1.6 mm3 FR4-epoxy substrate with a relative permittivity r = 4.4. The dual-sided structure of the antenna is designed from the intersection of the quarter of two ellipses. The major and the secondary radii of these ellipses are calculated according to [5]. The dimensions of the dierent parts are optimized for an impedance bandwidth covering frequencies starting from 1.5 GHz as shown in Figure 2. To induce the band notch and achieve recongurability, a recongurable band stop lter, based on three nested complementary split-ring resonators (CSRRs) is integrated on the ground plane. CSRRs are used in the literature to design recongurable and tunable bandstop and bandpass lters, which in turn will be embedded in antennas used for cognitive radio applications [9]. In [10], a bandstop lter implemented in the patch of a UWB antenna and based on nested CSRRs is presented. Compared to the work in [10], this proposed design has the advantage of implementing

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(a)

(b)

Figure 1: Antenna conguration. (a) Patch. (b) Ground plane.

Figure 2: Reection coecient of the antenna without the lter.

the notching mechanism as a lter, in the ground plane, which makes connecting the biasing lines a simple task and limit their degrading eect on the antenna performance. The lter is equipped with three electronic switches S1, S2 and S3 having a size of 1 0.25 mm2 . Depending on the state of a switch, the corresponding split-ring slot does or does not induce a band notch. When a switch is activated, the functioning of a larger CSRR is launched, and thus a notch at a lower frequency occurs. The CSRR sizes, depicted in Figure 3, are optimized so that the notch occurs at 3.5 GHz, 5.2 GHz or 7.3 GHz. The following switching cases are considered: Case 1 when all three switches are ON, Case 2 when only switch S3 is deactivated, Case 3 when S2 and S3 are deactivated, and Case 4 when all switches are OFF.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The proposed antenna is designed and simulated using Ansoft HFSS [11]. A prototype is fabricated and shown in Figure 3, and the reection coecient is measured for the possible operation scenarios. As illustrated in Figures 4 and 5, adequate analogy is shown between the simulated and measured results. For Case 1, in which all switches are ON, a UWB notch-free response is obtained. The results for Cases 2, 3 and 4, where the switches are sequentially activated, reveal

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(a)

(b)

Figure 3: (a) Filter conguration. (b) Fabricated antenna photo.

Figure 4: Computed reection coecient for the dierent switching cases of the antenna.

Figure 5: Measured reection coecient for the dierent switching cases of the antenna.

a single notch in the 3.5 GHz, 5.2 GHz or 7.3 GHz band, respectively. A notch in a certain band helps to prevent interference to a licensed user or the service operated in that band. The antenna has an omnidirectional pattern and good gain values in its operation band. However, the patterns

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Figure 6: Radiation patterns at 3.5 GHz for Case 2 in the H-plane (blue) and E-plane (red).

are subject to slight degradation at high frequencies. The normalized computed radiation patterns for Case 2, at 3.5 GHz, are shown in Figure 6. A clear omnidirectional pattern is revealed.
4. CONCLUSION

In this work, an antipodal Vivaldi antenna was proposed. It is compact-size and can operate over a very wide bandwidth, starting from 1.5 GHz. Due to the integrated lter on its feed line, the antenna has a recongurable band notch induced by CSRRs and controlled by electronic switches. Such design can be a possible candidate to be utilized in CR systems or in UWB applications.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work was supported by the University Research Board (URB) of the American University of Beirut (AUB).
REFERENCES

1. Win, M. Z. and R. A. Scholtz, Ultra-wide bandwidth (UWB) time hopping spread-spectrum impulse radio for wireless multiple access communications, IEEE Trans. Commun., Vol. 48, No. 4, 679689, 2000. 2. Mehdipour, A., K. Mohammadpour-Aghdam, and R. Faraji-Dana, Complete dispersion analysis of Vivaldi antenna for ultra wideband applications, Progress In Electromagnetics Research, Vol. 77, 8596, 2007. 3. Hood, A. Z., T. Karacolak, and E. Topsakal, A small antipodal Vivaldi antenna for ultrawideband applications, IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagat. Lett., Vol. 7, 656660, 2008. 4. Gazit, E., Improved design of the Vivaldi antenna, IEE Proceedings H , Vol. 135, No. 2, 8992, 1988. 5. Abbosh, A. M., H. K. Kan, and M. E. Bialkowski, Design of compact directive ultra wideband antipodal antenna, Microwave and Opt. Tech. Lett., Vol. 84, No. 12, 24482450, 2006. 6. Jolani, F., G. Dadashzadeh, M. Naser-Moghadasi, and A. M. Dadgarpour, Design and optimization of compact balanced antipodal Vivaldi antenna, Progress In Electromagnetics Research C , Vol. 9, 183192, 2009. 7. Mitola, J. and G. Q. Maguire, Cognitive radio: Making software radios more personal, IEEE Pers. Commun., Vol. 6, No. 4, 1318, 1999. 8. Al-Husseini, M., L. Safatly, A. Ramadan, A. El-Hajj, K. Y. Kabalan, and C. G. Christodoulou, Recongurable lter antennas for pulse adaptation in UWB cognitive radio systems, Progress In Electromagnetics Research B, Vol. 37, 327342, 2012. 9. Al-Husseini, M., A. Ramadan, A. El-Hajj, K. Y. Kabalan, Y. Tawk, and C. G. Christodoulou, Design based on complementary split-ring resonators of an antenna with controllable band notches for UWB cognitive radio applications, Proceedings of IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation, APSURSI, 11201122, Spokane, USA, Jul. 2011.

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10. Al-Husseini, M., J. Constantine, C. G. Christodoulou, S. E. Barbin, A. El-Hajj, and K. Y. Kabalan, A recongurable frequency-notched UWB antenna with split-ring resonators, Proceedings of Asia-Pacic Microwave Conference, APMC, 618621, Yokohama, Japan, Dec. 2011. 11. Ansoft HFSS, Pittsburg, PA 15219, USA.