Design of Compact Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna on $250\ \mu \mathrm{m}$ and $500\ \mu \mathrm{m}$ Polycarbonate Over Wide Frequency Range

A compact novel configuration of Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna has been designed for 8–75 GHz which works for radar frequency bands i.e. X band, Ku band, K band, Ka band, Q band and V band. It is designed over flexible polycarbonate substrate having radiating copper metallic patch. The decreasing amplitude corrugations which are designed in exponential manner are stripped off at front and back side of the antenna. The antenna exhibits good front to back ratio and peak realized gain. The peak realized gain ranges from 5 dBi to 12.7 dBi for $250\ \boldsymbol{\mu} \mathbf{m}$ thickness and it ranges from 2.18 dBi to 11.73 dBi for $500\ \boldsymbol{\mu} \mathbf{m}$ thickness. The antenna exhibits good radiation characteristics over the designed frequency range in terms of peak realized gain, front to back ratio as well as 3D radiation plots with that being better for $250\ \boldsymbol{\mu} \mathbf{m}$ antenna as compared to $500\ \boldsymbol{\mu} \mathbf{m}$ antenna. The antenna with $250\ \boldsymbol{\mu} \mathbf{m}$ thickness gives unidirectional radiation pattern almost covering the entire designed frequency range. The optimization of parameters is done in such manner so that it will achieve overall good performance.