A Compact Nonsymmetric Wideband Dipole Antenna for Borehole Radar Application

Borehole radar (BHR) is one of the most important types of ground-penetrating radar and has very strict requirements for antenna. Considering the detection resolution and the limited borehole size, the BHR antenna should be both wideband and compact. In this article, a compact nonsymmetric wideband dipole (NSWD) antenna is proposed. One arm of the NSWD antenna consists of several patches with different lengths, and the other one is a hollow metal tube. The combination of patches which are resistively loaded at the ends is used for increasing antenna bandwidth and frequency reconstruction. In addition, a three-section binomial matching transformer is designed for impedances match between antenna ( 120 Ω) and coaxial cable ( 50 Ω). Matching transformer and other radar system devices are housed in the hollow metal tube, which makes the BHR system much compact. The central frequency of the antenna is set to 86 MHz for long-range detection. The proposed antenna is fabricated and measured. The measurement results show that the proposed antenna has the advantages of wide bandwidth (~41.8% from 68 to 104 MHz) and high radiation efficiency (~65%). Finally, the antenna (including electronics) is assembled into a polyvinyl chloride pipe to form a BHR prototype, and we used it to conduct a field test in a water-filled borehole. The experimental results show that the NSWD antenna can work well with the BHR system inside borehole.