A Compact Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna for Food Investigation

In food industry, the analysis of the integrity of packaging and the quality of the food inside it is becoming increasingly important. Thus, the food industry is looking for a low-cost solution for the inspection of food during the production and packaging process, in order to detect any small foreign body. This is the aim of this work, i.e., to develop a microwave device capable of inspecting foodstuffs, directly on the production line. The solution proposed for this work is a microwave imaging system that detects fragments in homogenous food packaged in circular plastic/glass jars. The system relies on a particular Antipodal Vivaldi antenna which, due to its ultra-wideband characteristics, can carry out the detection of various types of food, thus avoiding the need to use multiple antennas working at different frequencies to inspect foods with different characteristics. Numerical analysis of the designed antenna shows Ultrawideband behavior (1-15GHz), suitable for applications in food quality control. Additionally, its detection capabilities are numerically proved.