Postwall Slotline and Its Application in Design of Short-Pulse Tapered Slot Antennas

A postwall slotline (PWS), composed of a bilateral slotline and two metalized via arrays aligned at the slot edges, is proposed and its application in the design of short-pulse tapered slot antennas (TSAs) is investigated. The characteristic impedance of the PWS is derived by a partly analytical and partly empirical method. Compared with the conventional slotline, the PWS has lower available characteristic impedance and larger variation range, which is favorable for meeting diverse design specifications. The PWS is employed in the design of two TSAs with exponential profile and Gaussian profile, respectively. The two tapered PWS antennas are fabricated and their performance in both frequency domain and time domain is investigated. The results show that the TSA based on the PWS is featured by broad bandwidth, low cross-polarization, and good suitability for short-pulse applications.