A Compact Vivaldi Antenna for S-band Phased Array Applications

This work presents a 3D all-planar Vivaldi antenna which is used as an element in a S-band phased array. The proposed antenna is composed of exponential radiation patches, impedance matching plates, supporting plates and a ground plate, all of which are planar structures with a thickness of 1 mm. To validate the design, the antenna is measured in an anechoic chamber and a reverberation chamber (RC). Measurement results indicate that the antenna has a bandwidth of 3.8 GHz which covers the S-band completely, and the total efficiency is higher than 90%. The radiation pattern shows a wide beam property which is beneficial to realize a large scanning angle. An array with 8×8 Vivaldi elements is also constructed.