Explosive Detection Approach by Printed Antennas

Microstrip patch antennas are recently used in wireless detection applications due to their low power consumption, low cost, versatility, field excitation, ease of fabrication etc. The microstrip patch antennas are also called as printed antennas which is suffer with an array elements of antenna and narrow bandwidth. To overcome the above drawbacks, Flame Retardant Material is used as the substrate. Rectangular shape of microstrip patch antenna with FR4 material as the substrate which is more suitable for the explosive detection applications. The proposed printed antenna was designed with the dimension of 60 x 60 mm2. FR-4 material has a dielectric constant value of 4.3 with thickness 1.56 mm, length and width 60 mm and 60 mm respectively. One side of the substrate contains the ground plane of dimensions 60 x60 mm2 made of copper and the other side of the substrate contains the patch which have dimensions 34 x 29 mm2 and thickness 0.03mm which is also made of copper. RMPA without slot, Vertical slot RMPA, Double horizontal slot RMPA and Centre slot RMPA structures were designed and the performance of the antennas were analysed with various parameters such as gain, directivity, Efield, VSWR and return loss. From the performance analysis, double horizontal slot RMPA antenna provides a better result and it provides maximum gain (8.61dB) and minimum return loss (-33.918dB). Based on the E-field excitation value the SEMTEX explosive material is detected and it was simulated using CST software.