Performance Analysis of UWB Antenna Array for Short-Range Imaging

To produce 3D high-resolution images of buried landmines, a novel UWB antenna array with electrically steered footprint has been developed in IRCTR. In this paper, focusing capabilities of the array are studied. The interaction between elements in the array and its influence on the near-field footprint is investigated. It is shown that the most interaction is due to scattering of incident field on array elements. This interaction not only changes the antenna input impedance, but also significantly influences the array focusing capability and footprint quality, which are closely related to the radar image quality. Thus, it is important to take these effects into account by array design.