Design of compact DRH antenna For GPR transmitter application

A compact double-ridged horn antenna (DRH) for the transmitter of ground penetrating radar applications in the frequency range of 80MHz to 1GHz. Within this contribution the design and simulation of such an antenna will be considered for water level detection in Egyptian dessert aquifers (depth ≥ 10m). Among the varying horn design parameters, the linear and exponentially tapered walls are studied as well as variations of the curvature of the dielectric waveguide between the two ridges enhancing matching hence reducing size and increasing operational bandwidth. The design goal is a broad bandwidth antenna with maintaining compact dimensions. Two modifications have been introduced on the conventional triangular. first multifunction tapering of the horn plates with curvature ending, second inserting protruding two ridges between the aperture planes and filling the space between the ridges with high constant dielectric material, in order to lower the operating frequency without increasing the size of the original setup. The proposed design has been applied to subsurface radar applications. The antenna 80 × 70 × 117cm resembles improvement in size as compared with some commercial GPR horn antennas as Satimo Horn model SH 68 (operating range 68-1020MHz with dimensions 2.98×1.61×2.5m). Simulations are done using CST Microwave Studio.