Using end reflections to improve the pulse radiation efficiency of bow-tie antenna

Bow-tie antenna is widely used for pulse radiation, but the radiation efficiency is less than 30%. In this letter, a novel method is presented to improve the efficiency by exploiting the energy in end reflections, which are thought to be harmful and usually suppressed in the reported literatures. When the exciting pulse is bipolar and monocycle, it is indicated that, the end reflection can be used for producing a pulse with increased peak value by optimizing the antenna length. The simulation results show that the pulse radiation efficiency can be increased 100% with the presented method.