Summary
International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation
2008
Session Number:4C36
Session:
Number:4C36-4
Rolled-Dipole Array for GPR Application with Variable Antenna Footprint
A.A. Lestari, Swardiman, Y. Wahyu, A. Kurniawan, A.G. Yarovoy, L.P. Ligthart,
pp.-
Publication Date:2008/10/27
Online ISSN:2188-5079
Summary:
In ground penetrating radar (GPR) terminology antenna footprint is defined as a collection of peak-to-peak amplitudes of the transmitted pulse measured in a horizontal plane. Antenna footprint indicates the shape and size of the area illuminated by the antenna on the ground surface or subsurface. Its importance lies in the fact that it determines the cross-range resolution of the GPR. If the size of the footprint is larger than the cross section of the target, it may give rise to clutter as the antenna illuminates not only the target but also the surrounding medium. Clutter can be maximally reduced if the size of the footprint is comparable with the cross section of the target. However, this is not always easily achieved as targets usually have different dimensions while the size of the antenna footprint remains fixed. In this work we demonstrate that a specially designed array antenna consisting of a number radiating elements can have a variable footprint by activating certain elements and deactivating the others. In this way the size of the footprint of the antenna can be adjusted to remain comparable with the cross section of targets so that clutter can be minimized for various targets with different dimensions. This paper presents only the results of FDTD simulations of the antenna, while the experimental results will be shown elsewhere.