Study of different configurations of tapered-slot antenna arrays for detecting buried objects

In this paper, results of comparative study of several designs of tapered-slot antennas for subsurface applications are presented. To this end, influence of mutual arrangement of the antennas in bi-static configuration and placed in the antenna arrays has been studied using both simulations and experiments. Major attention is paid to the behaviour of the transmitting-receiving antenna pair near the ground surface. It was found that displacement of the antennas in the array by about a half of the antenna opening suppresses unwanted lateral coupling while the resistive loading strengthens the field radiated by the antenna into the medium. Antennas with the displacement of about 0.5 of the width of the opening exhibit weak coupling that can be fairly well subtracted. The tapered-slot antenna arrays had been fabricated and tested in a test site for the detection of low-contrasted objects like anti-personnel mines.