TEM HORN ANTENNA FOR GROUND PENETRATING APPLICATIONS

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 character istic, and easy integration with microwave circuits. Two specially tapered metal flares have b een designed to make a wideband charac teristic and reduce the reflection. T o overcome aperture reflections at low frequencies and unba lanced 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 t hat the presented antenna has a wide bandwidth from 0 .83 to mo re than 12.8 GHz under a return loss 10 dB, small input reflect ion, a moderate gain from 0 dBi at 0.83 GHz to ? 10 dBi at 12 GHz, and a good radiation ch aracteristics in the time domain, which can be suitable for ground penetrating radar (GPR) app lications