Example 7: Antipodal Vivaldi with Slot Edges

We had the pleasure of evaluating this “pretty” antenna. It goes by the formal name of an antipodal PCB Vivaldi antenna with exponential slotted edges. Although, it is better known as a Palm Tree antenna! This design is by Iain, the author of the HexAndFlex Blog.

Our antenna testing services were used to evaluate this antenna to find out just how wide-banded it really is. It displayed positive gain from 1.5 to almost 18 GHz. Accounting for return loss and reasonable pattern directivity, the antenna is useful from about 1650 MHz to 9300 MHz. Realized radiation efficiency and return-loss/VSWR are great across this operating band.

Excel gain files are available for download here. Also, a 3D plot-file is available here, and can be used with our free 3D pattern plotting software.