A Compact Dual-Polarized Vivaldi Antenna with High Gain for Tree Radar Applications

A dual-polarized compact Vivaldi antenna with high gain performance is proposed for tree radar applications. The proposed design introduces an array configuration consisting of two pairs of two Vivaldi elements to optimize the operating bandwidth and gain while providing dual-polarization capability. To enhance the gain of the proposed antenna over a certain frequency range of interest, directors and edge slots are incorporated into each Vivaldi element. To further enhance the overall antenna gain, a metal back reflector is used. The measurement results of the fabricated antenna show that the proposed antenna achieves a high gain of 5.5 to 14.8 dBi over broadband from 0.5 GHz to 3 GHz. Moreover, it achieves cross-polarization discrimination larger than 20 dB, ensuring high polarization purity. The fabricated antenna is used to detect and image the defects inside tree trunks. The results show that the proposed antenna yields a better-migrated image with a clear defect region compared to that obtained by a commercial Horn antenna.