IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 71, NO.

12, DECEMBER 2023 9431

A Novel Gain-Enhanced Miniaturized and

Lightweight Vivaldi Antenna
Ababil Hossain and Anh-Vu Pham , Fellow, IEEE

Abstract— In this article, we present the design, prototyping, the range of 1.8–6.9 dB. In [7], another electrically compact
and characterization of an electrically smaller (0.36λ0 × 0.29λ0 × Vivaldi antenna is presented where a reduced low-frequency
0.002λ0 ) Vivaldi antenna with enhanced gain performance. The gain still remains a prime concern. Another popular method
antenna covers a bandwidth of 450 MHz–10 GHz with an average
forward realized gain of 10.82 dBi. By applying a novel technique of attaining electrical compactness is using lumped component
called “cascaded cavity-based substrate cut-out (CCSC),” we loading, such as resistors, inductors, and capacitors. This can
were able to increase the low-frequency gain within an electrically scale down the lower resonant frequency of a Vivaldi antenna
smaller Vivaldi antenna. Because the dielectric material has been by improving matching in the antenna network. Specifically,
removed around cavity locations, the antenna’s overall weight is resistor-loaded Vivaldi antennas can have significantly reduced
reduced, giving it a high gain per unit substrate weight/volume.
The high-frequency gain of the antenna has been improved with size by up to 50%, yet the average gain is even lower in the
a pixelated bilayer metallic director, which flattens the antenna’s range of 0.9–7.8 dB [8]. Recently, in [9], Saleh et al. developed
overall gain profile over a wider band range. The antenna a miniaturized planar Vivaldi antenna by using nonuniform
was constructed using a low-loss RT/duroid 5880 board. The transmission line theory. The size of the antenna was reduced
measurement results match the simulation satisfactorily. by greater than 50% while achieving a substantial level of gain
Index Terms— Cavity antenna, gain-enhanced antenna, improvement in its mid-band frequency range. Despite this,
low-weight antenna, miniaturized antenna, Vivaldi antenna. the application of nonuniform transmission line theory does
not improve low-frequency gain, which negatively impacts the
I. I NTRODUCTION
overall gain flatness of the antenna.

V IVALDI antennas have gained significant popularity

over the years due to their wide bandwidth and high
gain [1], [2]. A conventionally shaped Vivaldi antenna occu-
To compensate for the inherently reduced gain associated
with an antenna having a smaller aperture, the localized
surface current density in the radiator needs to be enhanced.
pies at least a half-wavelength (0.5λ0 ) in space at its lowest To meet this need, Vivaldi designs using tapered slots [10],
resonant frequency and has an average gain of 10–12 dB [3]. resonant cavity structures [11], etc., have shown excellent
In an ultrawideband (UWB) system, a high gain antenna with promise in literature. Applying these techniques increases the
a flat gain profile is critical; however, electrically compact low-frequency gain while keeping the antenna size reduced,
antennas inherently have lower gain due to a smaller aperture yet at mid-band frequency ranges the gain becomes less flat.
area [4], [5]. This necessitates novel techniques to attain higher By incorporating additional resonant structures or metama-
flat gain in an electrically compact Vivaldi antenna. terials in the antenna, the gain can be enhanced as well,
In a traditional antenna, current path elongation in the but within a very narrow-band range [12], [13]. Increased
aperture helps to accommodate a longer electrical length. width also enhances the gain of the Vivaldi antenna due to
This scales down the lowest resonant frequency, and in the the increase in the aperture area. Similarly, a double-slotted
process, renders size miniaturization. In this miniaturization Vivaldi has been reported in [14] where two feeding slots
method, the antenna’s gain reduces due to phase cancellation at used in the same antenna improve gain. Some other novel
different portions of the antenna structure. Following this type techniques for gain enhancement that have been described
of principle in [6], an L-shaped slot in the Vivaldi radiating fin in the literature include dielectric loading [15], [16], dielec-
reduces the antenna size by around 28%, producing a gain in tric substrate shaping [17], and parasitic patch [18]. While
Manuscript received 20 April 2023; revised 12 August 2023; these techniques increase antenna gain mainly at higher
accepted 23 August 2023. Date of publication 6 September 2023; date frequency bands, they also increase both the antenna size
of current version 20 December 2023. This work was supported by the
Department of the Navy, Office of Naval Research, under Award N00014-
and fabrication complexity. Therefore, designing a compact
22-1-2167. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations Vivaldi antenna with enhanced gain along with a flatter
expressed in this material are those of author(s) and do not necessarily gain profile in a wideband range remains a very challenging
reflect the views of the Office of Naval Research. (Corresponding author:
Ababil Hossain.)
task.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engi- Vivaldi antennas have been modified with the substrate
neering, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616 USA (e-mail: cut-out technique to improve the high-frequency gain and
[email protected]; [email protected]).
Color versions of one or more figures in this article are available at
correct pattern tilt [19]. Additionally, designers can carve
https://doi.org/10.1109/TAP.2023.3310611. dielectric-shaped grooves within a Vivaldi antenna to nar-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2023.3310611 row the beamwidth and improve the front-to-back ratio [20].
0018-926X © 2023 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See https://www.ieee.org/publications/rights/index.html for more information.

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9432 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 71, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2023

TABLE I
G EOMETRICAL PARAMETERS OF THE O PTIMIZED A NTENNA

Nevertheless, these techniques do not affect the overall current

density because the metallic portion of the antenna radiator
remains completely unaffected. As a result, these techniques
do not contribute to significant enhancement of the low-
frequency gain, which is extremely important in UWB com-
munications.
In this article, we present the design, development, and
experimental verification of a miniaturized and low-weight
Vivaldi antenna with enhanced gain performance over wide
frequency bandwidth. The antenna attains around 40% size
miniaturization, 2–3 dB of increased low-frequency gain,
and about 20% reduction in overall weight compared to a
similar-sized conventional Vivaldi antenna. A novel “cascaded
cavity-based substrate cut-out (CCSC)” technique has been
applied to attain low-frequency gain enhancement within an
electrically compact structure, while a pixelated bilayer metal-
lic director improves high-frequency gain without increasing
the overall size of the antenna. Enhancement of low-frequency
and high-frequency gain makes the antenna’s gain profile
flatter, allowing pulse transmission with low distortion and
high fidelity.

II. D EVELOPMENT OF C AVITY-BASED V IVALDI A NTENNA Fig. 1. Schematic of Cavity Vivaldi Antenna with necessary dimensions.
A. Overview of the Cavity-Based Vivaldi Antenna
Fig. 1 displays the antenna schematic with the necessary
symbols, whilst Table I lists the dimensional parameters with fabrication process, the dielectric material beneath each cavity
numerical values. In Fig. 1, multiple cascaded cavity structures is milled out. Importantly, the dielectric portion under the last
(CCS), a pixelated bilayer director, and two absorbers have two cavity holes in a cascaded cavity structure is not cut out
been incorporated into a Vivaldi antenna. A cascaded cavity to maintain the mechanical support. The start and end taper of
structure enhances low-frequency gain by concentrating higher the original Vivaldi arm can be represented by the following
current density around its periphery. An individual cascaded two curves in (1) and (2), where W is the antenna width.
cavity structure is formed by placing several circular cavities in 234.3x W
tandem. Each circular cavity has a diameter of 12 mm, and the C1: y = mm, 0≤x ≤ (1)
4.63 + x 2
centers of two neighboring cavities are separated by 11.8 mm.
W
As seen from Fig. 1, five rows of cascaded cavity structures C2: y = 90 − 90e−0.008x mm, 0≤x ≤ . (2)
(denoted by CCS#1–5) are symmetrically placed on both arms. 2
The tapered profile of CCS#1 follows the original taper of Among the other major components of the antenna, as seen
the main antenna (Curve C1) to accommodate a maximum in Fig. 1, a taper-shaped metallic director is deployed in the
number of cavity holes for enhanced size miniaturization. open space near the radiating slot line aperture. The director is
The remaining cascaded cavity structures (CCS#2–5) have a bilayer structure that consists of small segmented rectangular
relatively straighter shape profiles and are designed based metallic pixels, illustrated in the perspective view of Fig. 1.
on the current distributions on the antenna surface. They are The director enhances the high-frequency gain without any
placed in parallel with CCS#1 at an angle of 60◦ with the further size increase of the antenna. Additionally, a microwave
horizontal X -axis. During the printed circuit board (PCB) absorbing materials (MAMs) layer is placed on the sides of

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HOSSAIN AND PHAM: NOVEL GAIN-ENHANCED MINIATURIZED AND LIGHTWEIGHT VIVALDI ANTENNA 9433

Fig. 3. Surface current density comparison of a typical antipodal Vivaldi

versus cavity-array-based Vivaldi at 1.5 GHz. (a) Conventional Vivaldi.
Fig. 2. Fabricated prototype of Cavity Vivaldi. (Note: absorbers are placed (b) Cavity-array-based Vivaldi.
antipodally on both sides.) (a) Top view. (b) Bottom view.

TABLE II
C OMPARISON OF A NTENNA P ERFORMANCE PARAMETERS
less current in the middle, which means that there is a very
minimal contribution from this portion to the overall radiation
performance of the antenna [seen in Fig. 3(a)]. Hence if the
localized current density in the middle portion of a Vivaldi
antenna can be enhanced, it can increase the magnetic field
intensity of the Poynting vector, thus causing the gain to
increase significantly. For our cavity Vivaldi, electric charges
are accumulated around the metallic CCS at sharp edges
each cascaded cavity structure to alleviate ripples in return
where the repulsive force between the same polarity charges is
loss and gain due to current resonance. The Vivaldi is fed
minimal. This enhances charge density around the periphery of
with a tapered balun, with two parallel slots cut on both sides
the CCS and subsequently enhances localized current density,
of the ground. The parallel slots enhance the balun current’s
as shown in Fig. 3(b).
odd mode component, improving phase balance at the output.
Using characteristic mode theory (CMT), we have deter-
The design flow of the cavity antenna can be summarized
mined that the presence of cavities in the antenna enhances
in the following three steps:
the surface current density of the desired odd modes with
Step 1: We optimized the size, shape, and position of the strong current resonance, while suppressing even mode current
CCS.
more prominently [21], [22], [23]. According to CMT, the total
Step 2: We selected an absorber material in the operating
current density on the antenna surface can be expressedP as the
frequency range and placed it upon the open cavity
linear superposition of the modal currents, i.e., J = n αn J n .
terminals in order to alleviate the transient effects
To demonstrate an example of this, we ran a CMT analysis
of cavity structures on return loss and gain.
for the first ten modes in CST. Fig. 4 compares the corre-
Step 3: We optimized the length, width, and gap of the unit
sponding current density and patterns for two different modes
element of the bilayer pixelated metallic director
at 1.5 GHz in the cavity antenna. As evident from Fig. 4(a),
so the ±90◦ reflection phase bandwidth of the unit
mode-3 is an even mode with its current (J3 ) spread throughout
pixel would cover the antenna’s higher edge of the
the antenna surface, causing undesirable broadside radiation.
bandwidth.
By comparison, mode-8 has its current (J8 ) concentrated on
A prototype of the antenna was fabricated with a low-loss the cavity edges, with the current distribution resembling
RT/duroid 5880 substrate (ϵr = 2.2, tanδ = 0.0085) having a an odd mode. This causes directive patterns in the endfire
thickness of 1.57 mm. Fig. 2 presents the top and bottom view direction.
of the novel cavity Vivaldi antenna with its main distinguishing Five rows of CCS boost the low-frequency gain. Every
features marked. cascaded cavity structure is essentially an open-slotted metallic
In Table II, the performance metrics of our designed cavity structure, so a current loop is not formed around its periphery.
Vivaldi are compared with those of a conventional antipodal A current loop distorts the odd mode current distribution
Vivaldi of the same size. This demonstrates that the cav- on the Vivaldi aperture, distorting the endfire radiation from
ity Vivaldi antenna has better gain, size, and weight. the antenna. Size miniaturization has been attained through
current path elongation near the radiating aperture, displayed
B. Cavity Array previously in Fig. 3(b). Furthermore, the overall weight of the
A conventional Vivaldi is a resonant antenna at low fre- antenna reduces due to substrates being cut out underneath the
quency, where its surface current density is mainly concen- CCS. Therefore, in incorporating the cavity array, we present
trated around the edges of the arm. There is significantly a unified approach to simultaneously achieving low-frequency

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9434 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 71, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2023

Fig. 4. Characteristic mode analysis at 1.5 GHz with corresponding

current density and directivity for different modes. (a) Mode-3 (even mode).
(b) Mode-8 (odd mode).

Fig. 6. Simulated (a) low-frequency gain and (b) reflection co-efficient

comparison for a different number of rows of cavity structures.

up to almost 3 GHz. For additional cavity rows, although the

increase in gain is subtle, the gain curve gradually flattens
in the low-frequency region. With five rows of CCS, a gain
increase of around 2.5–3 dB over a wider bandwidth is
achieved; the gain at the lower edge of the band at 450 MHz
is 4.47 dB. This happens because current resonates on each
Fig. 5. Vivaldi with different combinations of cascaded cavity structures cascaded cavity structure when the length of the cavity row
(CCS). (a) Traditional antipodal Vivaldi. (b) Vivaldi with one row of CCS. is comparable to λ /4, λ /2, λ , and so on. In our design,
(c) Vivaldi with five rows of CCS. resonance occurs at 0.5, 1.5, and 2.6 GHz as evident from
the gain in Fig. 6(a). At these frequencies, the length of one
row of cavities becomes comparable to a multiple of a quarter-
gain enhancement, antenna miniaturization, and weight wavelength. A significant current and gain enhancement occurs
reduction. when the length of a cavity row is about λ /2 (full-wave dipole)
1) Analysis of Cavity Arrays on Antenna Gain and Lower in its electrical length, which happens near 1.5 GHz in our
Cut-Off Frequency: To analyze the exact effect of cavi- design. At this frequency, the length of the first four longer
ties, we simulate different configurations of Vivaldi in CST cavity rows (CCS#1–4) on each side becomes comparable
Microwave Studio software, as shown in Fig. 5. Displayed are to a half-wavelength. Based on classical array theory, the
the traditional antipodal Vivaldi, a Vivaldi with one row of cavities work like a dipole array, where each cascaded cavity
cascaded cavity structure, and a Vivaldi with five rows of CCS. structure works as a unit antenna element of the array. The
The antennas are simulated without any absorber to accurately distance between two elements in the cavity array is almost
observe the cavity structures’ effect. the same, which ensures a constant phase difference (α = βd)
Fig. 6 demonstrates the effects of cavities on the gain between individual array elements since they are excited by
and return loss. As evident from Fig. 6(a), a cavity-based the same flared transmission line from the antenna port [24].
Vivaldi exhibits superiority in gain compared to a traditional Theoretically, the array factor is maximized toward the endfire
antipodal Vivaldi. With one row of CCS, gain enhancement is direction to enhance the gain. The result is an enhanced
achieved only at a lower frequency near 0.5 GHz compared to low-frequency gain up to almost 3 GHz. After 3 GHz, the
a simple or conventional Vivaldi antenna of the same size. traveling wave radiation mode of the Vivaldi dominates when
A Vivaldi with two rows of cavities (#1 and #2) exhibits the radiation occurs mainly from the slot line aperture, similar
a significant increase in gain in the low-frequency region, to a traditional Vivaldi antenna. Due to this, the effects of

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HOSSAIN AND PHAM: NOVEL GAIN-ENHANCED MINIATURIZED AND LIGHTWEIGHT VIVALDI ANTENNA 9435

Fig. 7. Simulated forward realized gain comparison for different shapes of Fig. 8. Simulated forward realized gain for different interelement distances
cascaded cavity structure (without MAMs). in cavity array.

cavity arrays on gain enhancement are minimal at higher Because of this, beam splitting occurs, causing side lobes to
frequencies. appear in the radiation pattern and lowering forward or endfire
A traditional Vivaldi has an electrical length of around gain. Therefore, this design does not employ the horizontal
λ /2, where λ is the wavelength corresponding to the lowest elliptical-shaped cavity unit.
b) Interelement distance between cascaded cavity struc-
operating frequency. The cascaded cavity structure elongates
tures: For CCS to achieve an improved gain in the endfire
the current path in the antenna aperture, explained earlier
direction, optimum interelement spacing is crucial. Fig. 8
in Fig. 3(b). This accommodates a larger electrical length
explains the effect of interelement spacing. Strong mutual
in the antenna, causing the antenna to resonate at a lower
coupling causes the peripheral current and electric field dis-
frequency. The phenomenon of frequency getting scaled-down
tribution of closely spaced cavity structures to be distorted.
is explained in Fig. 6(b). The traditional Vivaldi has a cut-off
This results in severe beam splitting and pattern distortion at
frequency with a reflection coefficient of −10 dB at 750 MHz.
various frequencies, causing forward realized gain to reduce.
Due to the addition of the first row of cavities, the cut-off
The 4.7 GHz frequency illustrates this in Fig. 8 (Case-1). In the
frequency scales down to 510 MHz. With two rows of cavities
inset, the distances d1 and d2 are marked.
(#1 and #2), the lower cut-off frequency reduces to 480 MHz
In Fig. 9, the beam-splitting phenomenon at 4.7 GHz is
due to the mutual coupling between adjacent CCS. Additional
illustrated with electric field distribution on the cavity struc-
cavity rows gradually reduce the resonant frequency. When
tures and the corresponding 3-D radiation patterns. As seen in
five rows of cavities are used, the lower cut-off frequency shifts
Fig. 9(a), when cavity rows are closely spaced strong mutual
down to 460 MHz, achieving a ∼38% reduced size antenna
coupling between adjacent cavity rows distorts the E-field
compared to a traditional Vivaldi of the same size.
pattern, causing the beam-splitting effect. However, in the case
2) Optimization Analysis of Cavity Arrays: To achieve the
of optimally spaced cavity rows as in Fig. 9(b), the E-field
best radiation performance from the antenna, it is necessary to
pattern around the individual cavity rows is mostly unaffected;
optimize the interelement spacing between two adjacent rows
hence no beam-splitting occurs. Considering the flatness of
of cavity structures and the geometry of the unit cavity in CCS.
gain, the optimum distances for d1 and d2 are chosen at 23 and
During the optimization process, gain enhancement in the end-
20 mm, respectively (Case-2 in Fig. 8).
fire direction is given the utmost priority. Originally, we started
from a simple conventional antipodal Vivaldi antenna having
C. Microwave Absorbing Materials (MAMs)
a lower cut-off frequency of 750 MHz. We then deployed,
modified, and optimized the shape and location of the five MAMs have been used on metallic corrugation on either
rows of cavity structures in the antenna. side of the cavity Vivaldi antenna. Our MAM is Eccosorb-
a) Size and shape of the cavity unit: Different shaped AN79 which has a high absorption property, reflecting less
cavity units are applied to form a cascaded cavity structure. than −17 dB of normal incident energy in the 0.5–20 GHz
Circular cavity, vertical, and horizontal elliptical-shaped cavi- range [25]. MAMs function as a matched impedance layer for
ties are among those contained in the inset of Fig. 7. We then RF frequency absorption. In doing so, it lessens the standing
compare the forward realized simulated gain for different wave effect caused by reflection from the open cascaded cavity
shapes of the cavity in Fig. 7. Evidently, both circular (red) terminals. Fig. 10 shows the simulated return losses of the
and vertical elliptical (green) shaped cavities yield enhanced cavity Vivaldi with and without MAMs. With MAMs, the
gain performance with a flatter gain profile. Simulation reveals return loss parameter is significantly enhanced, especially at
that the vertical elliptical cavity unit offers somewhat superior lower frequencies. Without MAMs, transient effects in the
gain improvement over the circular unit because of its ability to cavities cause unwanted spikes in the return loss deteriorating
guide secondary traveling wave branches at higher frequencies. the UWB performance of the antenna.
However, considering PCB requirements, we choose a circular
cavity shape for fabrication compatibility where the diameter D. Pixelated Bilayer Metallic Director
of the circular cavity is 12 mm to optimize gain performance. We design a bilayer director composed of small optimized
It is also noticeable that the horizontal elliptical cavity shape rectangular metallic pixels for high-frequency gain enhance-
(blue) causes severe standing waves at higher frequencies. ment. As previously shown in the schematic design of Fig. 1,

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9436 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 71, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2023

Fig. 11. (a) Unit cell simulation set-up in Ansys HFSS and (b) dimensional
specifications of bilayer metallic pixelated structure.

Fig. 9. Electric field distribution and corresponding beam splitting phe-

nomenon at 4.7 GHz. (a) Closely spaced cavity rows (d1 = 18 mm, d2 =
17 mm). (b) Optimally spaced cavity rows (d1 = 23 mm, d2 = 20 mm).

Fig. 10. Simulated return losses of the cavity antenna with and without
MAMs.

the pixels are positioned periodically in 2-D space to create a

taper-shaped structure within the main antenna radiating slot.
The designed director is both broadband and highly compact.
1) Design Principle: The basic working principle of our Fig. 12. (a) Magnitude of Z11 and (b) reflection phase (̸ S11) variation for
director is similar to a high-impedance surface [26], [27], different pixel types.
[28], [29]. To investigate the director’s accurate impedance
and scattering profile, we run a Floquet port analysis of a
unit cell from the bilayer pixelated structure in Ansys HFSS, frequency, much like in a high-impedance surface or perfect
as seen in the setup of Fig. 11(a). The unit cell comprises a magnetic conductor (PMC). The frequency where the peak
top and bottom pixel on the central substrate. The substrate impedance occurs also changes for different pixel dimensions.
has the same thickness and properties as the original antenna. We see that the resonant frequency shifts from 9.8 to 4.25 GHz
The unit cell is excited with a plane wave (TE00 mode) by a when the length of the metallic segment increases (Pixel
Floquet port from the top; primary and secondary boundary Type-III from Pixel Type-I).
pairs are assigned on the four sides, making it infinite in the The reflection phase of the pixelated structure is represented
2-D transverse direction in simulation. We categorized the in Fig. 12(b). At very low frequencies, the pixelated structure
pixels into three groups based on their dimensions: Type-I is has a reflection phase close to 180◦ , making it work like
more compact, whereas Type-III is longer, shown in Fig. 11(b). a perfect electric conductor (PEC), while at the resonant
The impedance profile of the pixelated bilayer structure frequency the reflection phase is 0◦ . The frequency region with
varies depending on the frequency of the incident plane waves. ±90◦ reflection phase is the frequency region where the phase
As evident from Fig. 12(a), at lower and higher frequencies of the incident electric field is not reversed during reflection.
the impedance magnitude of the pixelated structure is very This is one of the most critical properties of a high-impedance
low. However, the impedance abruptly increases at the resonant PMC surface, which has been frequently utilized to improve

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HOSSAIN AND PHAM: NOVEL GAIN-ENHANCED MINIATURIZED AND LIGHTWEIGHT VIVALDI ANTENNA 9437

Fig. 13. Simulated forward realized gain comparison for different pixel types Fig. 14. Simulated forward realized gain comparison with and without a
in the director. director.

antenna radiation performance over the decades. As per the

conditions of the PMC surface, at the resonant frequency the
magnetic field is zero on the interface, while the amplitude of
the electric field reaches the maximum. The enhanced induced
electric field within the ±90◦ reflection phase bandwidth
enhances the antenna’s average radiated power and endfire
gain. The reflection phase plot in Fig. 12(b) demonstrates that
the reflection phase bandwidth region can also be tuned by
changing the pixel dimension. Pixel Type-I’s reflection phase
bandwidth is marked pink in the shaded portion.
2) Parametric Analysis of Pixel Type in Director: Para-
metric analysis was run for different pixel dimensions within
the tapered pixelated director. The pixel unit length controls
the inductance of the pixelated structure, and the interpixel
gap controls its capacitance value. For the convenience of
illustration, we only vary the length of an individual pixel
and keep the other two parameters (width and interpixel gap)
fixed. The exact dimensions of different pixel types have
been shown previously in Fig. 11. We investigated the gain
profiles for the types (Type-I to Type-III) in the antenna’s
director, displayed in Fig. 13. Pixel Type-I has a shorter length
and yields a flatter gain profile, while Pixel Type-III evinces
reduced gain bandwidth. In fact, partial reflection of the
incoming wave starts to originate due to longer length in Pixel Fig. 15. Comparison of (a) return loss and (b) gain of cavity Vivaldi with a
Type-III after 3.1 GHz. This distorts the original radiation conventional Vivaldi of the same size.
patterns emanating from the slot line aperture region, reducing
the forward gain. To maintain UWB gain performance close
to 10 GHz, optimum pixel length, width, and gap values are as shown in Fig. 15(a). The green curve is the simulated return
chosen at 6, 2, and 2 mm, respectively (Pixel Type- I). loss of a conventional antipodal Vivaldi of the same size.
3) Gain Enhancement in Cavity Antenna With Director: The novel cavity array-based Vivaldi has a lower cut-off
A taper-shaped metallic director composed of the pixelated frequency than the conventional one. As also evident from
bilayer structure is deployed in the vacant space of slot line Fig. 15(a), the cavity antenna produces close to 10 dB mea-
aperture shown in the inset of Fig. 14. When the frequency of sured return loss from 450 MHz to 10 GHz. There are small
the incident wave from the main radiator antenna falls within ripples of around −8 dB in the S11 near 9.25 GHz, which
the reflection phase bandwidth of the pixelated bilayer director, is within the tolerable limit. The forward realized gain is
it is transmitted with enhanced magnitude. The overall result compared in Fig. 15(b), where the cavity Vivaldi antenna
is an enhanced gain of around 1.5–2 dB in the frequency exhibits enhanced gain compared to a similar-sized antipodal
band from 2.5–9 GHz, demonstrated in Fig. 14. Outside the Vivaldi, almost up to 9 GHz. It is also seen that the gain curve
reflection phase bandwidth region, the forward or endfire remains relatively flat over the UWB range from 1.8 to 9 GHz.
gain eventually starts to fall due to beam splitting or pattern The radiation patterns were measured in the anechoic cham-
distortion, as evident near 9.7 GHz in Fig. 14. ber, which are plotted and compared with simulation data at
both E and H planes in Fig. 16. The simulated and measured
III. M EASUREMENT R ESULTS data of the radiation patterns show satisfactory matching,
The return loss of the cavity Vivaldi was measured, although the measured gain is around 1 dB less compared
which demonstrates satisfactory matching with the simulation, to simulation.

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9438 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 71, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2023

such as tapered slots [10], [11]. This ensures an enhanced

flat gain at the lower end of the band. Furthermore, using a
pixelated director with a broadband high-impedance surface
enhances the E-field near the radiating slot-line aperture at
the higher end of the band. This allows for gain enhancement
at higher frequencies, which consequently flattens the overall
gain profile. In addition to these gain enhancements, current
path elongation and subsequent mutual coupling in the cavity
rows cause the lower resonant frequency to scale down,
significantly reducing the antenna’s electrical size. The overall
result is a higher average gain within a compact antenna
architecture.

IV. C ONCLUSION
A gain-enhanced modified Vivaldi antenna with compact
size and lightweight performance has been designed and fab-
ricated based on the novel cascaded cavity-based substrate cut-
out technique. The antenna achieves a 40% reduction in size,
a 2–3 dB boost in low-frequency gain, and a 20% reduction in
overall weight compared to a conventional antipodal Vivaldi
antenna of the same size. The circular-shaped cavity enhances
low-frequency gain, while a pixelated bilayer metallic director
enhances high-frequency gain, flattening the gain profile over
a broadband range. Absorbers on the sides help reduce return
loss ripples in addition to improving pattern characteristics.
Fig. 16. Comparison of simulated and measured value of 2-D radiation The fabricated antenna prototype shows satisfactory matching
patterns of the cavity Vivaldi. with the simulated model in terms of return loss and gain
performance.
TABLE III
C OMPARISON B ETWEEN P ROPOSED A NTENNA AND L ITERATURE R EFERENCES
[1] P. J. Gibson, “The Vivaldi Aerial,” in Proc. 9th Eur. Microw. Conf.,
Brighton, U.K., Jun. 1979, pp. 101–105.
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ized antipodal Vivaldi antenna with improved radiation characteris-
structure condenses strong currents around the edges when tics,” IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 10, pp. 127–130,
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frequency gain. The gain also does not decrease drastically [11] Y. Liu, W. Zhou, S. Yang, W. Li, P. Li, and S. Yang, “A novel
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HOSSAIN AND PHAM: NOVEL GAIN-ENHANCED MINIATURIZED AND LIGHTWEIGHT VIVALDI ANTENNA 9439

[12] R.-C. Deng et al., “Performance enhancement of novel antipodal Vivaldi Ababil Hossain was born in Kushtia, Bangladesh,
antenna with irregular spacing distance slots and modified-w-shaped in 1990. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees
metamaterial loading,” Appl. Phys. A, Solids Surf., vol. 125, p. 5, in electrical and electronic engineering from the
Dec. 2018. Bangladesh University of Engineering and Tech-
[13] B. Zhou and T. J. Cui, “Directivity enhancement to Vivaldi antennas nology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 2012 and
using compactly anisotropic zero-index metamaterials,” IEEE Antennas 2015, respectively, the M.S.E.E. degree from Utah
Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 10, pp. 326–329, 2011. State University, Logan, UT, USA, in 2017, and the
[14] Y.-W. Wang, G.-M. Wang, and B.-F. Zong, “Directivity improvement Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering
of Vivaldi antenna using double-slot structure,” IEEE Antennas Wireless from University of California at Davis, Davis, CA,
Propag. Lett., vol. 12, pp. 1380–1383, 2013. USA, in 2023.
He was a Lecturer with the Department of Elec-
[15] J. Bourqui, M. Okoniewski, and E. C. Fear, “Balanced antipodal
trical and Electronic Engineering, Bangladesh University of Business and
Vivaldi antenna with dielectric director for near-field microwave imag-
Technology (BUBT), Dhaka, from 2012 to 2014. He also worked as a Lecturer
ing,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 58, no. 7, pp. 2318–2326,
with the Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering, East
Jul. 2010.
West University, Dhaka, in 2018. He worked as an Antenna Engineer with
[16] R. Cicchetti, V. Cicchetti, A. Faraone, L. Foged, and O. i5 Technologies Inc., Logan, in 2017, for nine months. From 2014 to 2016,
Testa, “A compact high-gain wideband lens Vivaldi antenna he was a Research Assistant at Utah State University. Since 2018, he has
for wireless communications and through-the-wall imaging,” been with the Microwave Microsystems Laboratory, University of California
IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 69, no. 6, pp. 3177–3192, at Davis, where he is currently working as a Graduate Student Researcher. His
Jun. 2021. current research interests include electrically compact antennas, ultrawideband
[17] M. Moosazadeh, S. Kharkovsky, J. T. Case, and B. Samali, “Improved (UWB) antennas, phased-array antennas, reconfigurable antennas, metamate-
radiation characteristics of small antipodal Vivaldi antenna for rials, radio frequency (RF) circuits, and radar.
microwave and millimeter-wave imaging applications,” IEEE Antennas Dr. Hossain received the Advancement-to-Candidacy (AC) Fellowship and
Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 16, pp. 1961–1964, 2017. the Dissertation Writing Fellowship at UC Davis in 2022. He also received the
[18] I. T. Nassar and T. M. Weller, “A novel method for improving antipodal University Undergraduate Admission Test Excellency Scholarship at BUET
Vivaldi antenna performance,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 63, in 2007 for securing the 14th position. He served as the Session Co-Chair for
no. 7, pp. 3321–3324, Jul. 2015. the IEEE APS/URSI Conference held in Singapore in December 2021.
[19] N.-N. Wang, M. Fang, H.-T. Chou, J.-R. Qi, and L.-Y. Xiao, “Bal-
anced antipodal Vivaldi antenna with asymmetric substrate cutout and
dual-scale slotted edges for ultrawideband operation at millimeter-
wave frequencies,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 66, no. 7,
pp. 3724–3729, Jul. 2018. Anh-Vu Pham (Fellow, IEEE) received the B.E.E.
[20] I. Mohamed, Z. Briqech, and A. Sebak, “Antipodal Fermi tapered slot (Hons.), M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engi-
antenna for 60-GHz band applications,” IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. neering from the Georgia Institute of Technology,
Lett., vol. 14, pp. 96–99, 2015. Atlanta, GA, USA, in 1995, 1997, and 1999,
respectively.
[21] R. Harrington and J. Mautz, “Theory of characteristic modes for
He joined the University of California at Davis,
conducting bodies,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. AP-19, no. 5,
Davis, CA, USA, in 2002, as an Assistant Profes-
pp. 622–628, Sep. 1971.
sor and was promoted to Full Professor in 2008.
[22] W. Li, Y. Liu, J. Li, L. Ye, and Q. H. Liu, “Modal proportion analysis in From 1999 to 2002, he was an Assistant Professor
antenna characteristic mode theory,” Int. J. Antennas Propag., vol. 2019, with Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA. He is
Feb. 2019, Art. no. 7069230. currently the Co-Director of the Davis Millimeter
[23] C. R. Peñafiel-Ojeda, C. E. Andrade, R. Baez-Egas, and Wave Research Center. He is conducting research in RF to THz integrated
V. Garcia-Santos, “An ultrawideband printed monopole antenna circuits, antennas, radar and sensors, and energy harvesting systems. His
analyzed with the theory of characteristic modes,” IEEE Latin Amer. research has been supported by governmental agencies, national laboratories,
Trans., vol. 20, no. 6, pp. 948–954, Jun. 2022. and companies. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles, several
[24] W. L. Stutzman and A. T. Gary, Antenna Theory and Design. Hoboken, book chapters, and two books and has graduated 28 Ph.D. students. In 1997,
NJ, USA: Wiley, 2012. he cofounded RF Solutions, Atlanta, a fabless RF IC company. In 2003,
[25] Datasheets. (2021). RFP-DS-Eccosorb AN 180620. [Online]. Available: RF Solutions was acquired by Anadigics, Warren, NJ, USA. In 2008,
https://www.laird.com/ he cofounded Planarmag, Inc., West Sacramento, CA, USA, and served
[26] O. Luukkonen et al., “Simple and accurate analytical model of pla- as the CTO. In 2010, Planarmag, Inc., was acquired by TE Connectivity,
nar grids and high-impedance surfaces comprising metal strips or Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
patches,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., vol. 56, no. 6, pp. 1624–1632, Dr. Pham received the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in
Jun. 2008. 2001 and the Outstanding Young Engineer Award from the IEEE Microwave
Theory and Techniques Society in 2008. He served as the Co-Chair for
[27] S.-W. Lee, G. Zarrillo, and C.-L. Law, “Simple formulas for transmission
the Technical Program Committee (TPC) of the 2016 IEEE International
through periodic metal grids or plates,” IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag.,
Microwave Symposium (IMS), San Francisco, and the TPC Co-Chair for
vol. AP-30, no. 5, pp. 904–909, Sep. 1982.
the 2017 IEEE Asia Pacific Microwave Conference, Malaysia; an IEEE
[28] D. F. Sievenpiper, High-Impedance Electromagnetic Surfaces. MTT-S Distinguished Microwave Lecturer from 2010 to 2012; and a mem-
Los Angeles, CA, USA: Univ. California, 1999. ber/Chair of the IMS Technical Program Review Committee on Power
[29] D. Sievenpiper, L. Zhang, R. F. J. Broas, N. G. Alexopolous, and Amplifiers. He served as a Guest Editor for the IEEE T RANSACTIONS
E. Yablonovitch, “High-impedance electromagnetic surfaces with a ON M ICROWAVE T HEORY AND T ECHNIQUES Special Issues on Broadband
forbidden frequency band,” IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Techn., vol. 47, Millimeter-Wave Power Amplifiers in 2020 and the Asia-Pacific Microwave
no. 11, pp. 2059–2074, Nov. 1999. Conference in 2017.

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