Patch Antenna Miniaturization Through Electromagnetic Genetic Algorithm Optimization

A recurring theme in today's commercial and military electronics is the emphasis on high-performance system requirements while maintaining low manufacturing and operational costs. This is especially true for antenna designs, which must provide a low-cost solution while satisfying specific electrical requirements such as bandwidth, gain, multi-band operation, and size constraints. To achieve the required cost, performance, and miniaturization, a designer must often venture into a world of non-intuitive antenna configurations. Doing so successfully and in a timely manner requires an efficient methodology based on electromagnetic simulation and advanced optimization techniques that go beyond the tweaking of familiar structures.

A technique based on an evolutionary optimization strategy, otherwise known as genetic algorithms, has been increasingly applied to electromagnetic design. Genetic algorithm (GA) optimization is well suited to working with existing electromagnetic (EM) simulation technologies, often yielding results that achieve the performance targets with a unique structure that is non-intuitive to the antenna designer. In this paper, we utilize a genetic algorithm script in conjunction with a planar EM simulator to perform novel pattern synthesis of a patch antenna.