Design and Optimisation of an Inverted U-Shaped Patch Antenna for Ultra-wideband Ground-Penetrating Radar Applications

Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) systems with ultra-wideband (UWB) antennas introduce the benefits of both high and low frequencies. Higher frequencies offer finer spatial resolution, enabling the detection of small-scale features and details, while lower frequencies improve depth penetration by minimising signal attenuation, allowing the system to explore deeper subsurface layers. This combination optimises the performance of GPR systems by balancing the need for detailed imaging with the requirement for deeper penetration. This work presents the design of a wideband inverted U-shaped patch antenna with a wide rectangular slot centred at a frequency of 1.5 GHz. The antenna is fed through a microstrip feed line and employs a partial ground plane. Through simulation, the antenna is optimised by varying the patch dimensions and slot size. Further modifications to the partial ground plane improve UWB and gain characteristics of the antenna. The optimised antenna is fabricated using a double-sided copper clad FR4 substrate with a thickness of 1.6 mm and characterised using a Vector Network Analyser (VNA), with a final dimensions of 200 mm x 300 mm. The experimental results demonstrate a return loss below -10 dB across the operational band from 1.068 GHz to 4 GHz and achieve a maximum gain of 7.29 dB at 4 GHz. In addition to other bands, the antenna exhibits a return loss consistently below -20 dB in the frequency range of 1.367 GHz to 1.675 GHz. These results confirm the antenna’s UWB performance and its suitability for GPR applications in utility mapping, landmine and artefact detection, and identifying architectural defects.