FDTD analysis of resistor-loaded bow-tie antennas covered with ferrite-coated conducting cavity for subsurface radar

This paper presents a full-wave analysis of a ground penetrating radar (GPR) using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The antenna treated here consists of a resistor-loaded bow-tie antenna, which is covered with a rectangular conducting cavity of which inner walls are coated partially or fully with ferrite absorber. Some techniques are introduced into the FDTD analysis to obtain the accurate results and to save the computer resources. The validity of the FDTD analysis is confirmed experimentally. Furthermore, the effects of the ferrite absorber on the GPR characteristics are theoretically investigated in detail. The FDTD results indicate that the remarkable improvement of the antenna characteristics for the GPR system cannot be attained by the ferrite absorber.