Compactness and performance enhancement techniques of ultra-wideband tapered slot antenna: A comprehensive review

Higher performance, lower cost, and compact size antennas are important in today's wireless communication system where everything is connected. Many approaches are developed over the past twenty years to sustain suitable compact broadband antennas with efficient performance in many applications for easy integration and connection of devices, especially in the internet of things (IoT) technology and cognitive radio networks (CRNs). Broadband planar antennas, such as the Vivaldi tapered slot antenna (VTSA), are suitable for these applications due to their wide bandwidth, high gain, simple planner structure, low profile, lightweight, low fabrication cost, and easy integration with circuits. Although many approaches proposed for TSAs’ compactness and performance enhancement, this work for the first time presents a comprehensive review of different types of ultrawide band (UWB) TSA designs focusing on the compactness and performance enhancement strategies pointing out to pros, cons, and practical applications for the last twenty years which are also addressed using extensive comparison tables. This comparison seeks to help both researchers and RF designers grasp the fundamentals of establishing effective steps for Vivaldi antenna design with high resilience by combining multiple strategies and exploiting their benefits while avoiding or mitigating their drawbacks.