Printed slot loaded bow-tie antenna with super wideband radiation characteristics for imaging applications

A super wideband printed modified bow-tie antenna loaded with rounded-T shaped slots fed through a microstrip balun is proposed for microwave and millimeter-wave band imaging applications. The modified slot-loaded bow-tie pattern increases the electrical length of the bow-tie antenna reducing the lower band to 3.1 GHz. In addition, over the investigated frequency band up to 40 GHz, the proposed modified bow-tie pattern considerably flattens the input impedance response of the bow-tie resulting in a smooth impedance matching performance enhancing the reflection coefficient (S11) characteristics. The introduction of the modified ground plane printed underneath the bow-tie, on the other hand, yields to directional far-field radiation patterns with considerably enhanced gain performance. The S11 and E-plane/H-plane far-field radiation pattern measurements have been carried out and it is demonstrated that the fabricated bow-tie antenna operates across a measured frequency band of 3.1-40 GHz with an average broadband gain of 7.1 dBi.