Vivaldi antennas as detectors for microwave imaging: further steps in its radiation features analysis

The main topic of this paper belongs to the Vivaldi aerial analysis. A current distribution on the antenna surface closed form in agreement with numerical simulation results is presented. By starting from the proposed current distribution, the equations for the electrical potentials and radiation pattern are derived. The integral equations obtained for potentials and radiation pattern are then numerically solved and presented. The second part of the work is oriented to the development of a still simple, but more realistic model for the Vivaldi antenna, to be numerically analyzed. Numerical results show that the important features of the antenna are quite similar, in their behavior, to the one provided by the analytical model. In particular, the analytical model, can provide a good estimate of the radiation pattern of a true Vivaldi antenna.