Parallel particle swarm optimization and finite- difference time-domain (PSO/FDTD) algorithm for multiband and wide-band patch antenna designs

• Published in: IEEE transactions on antennas and propagation Vol. 53; no. 11; pp. 3459 - 3468
• Main Authors: Jin, N., Rahmat-Samii, Y.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.11.2005; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Algorithm design and analysis; Algorithms; Antenna measurements; Antennas; Applied sciences; Broadband antennas; Computational modeling; Design engineering; Design optimization; Exact sciences and technology; Finite difference methods; Finite difference time domain method; Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD); Mathematical analysis; Optimization; parallel computation; Particle swarm optimization; patch antenna; Patch antennas; Radiocommunications; Solid modeling; Studies; Telecommunications; Telecommunications and information theory; Time domain analysis; Performance evaluation; Parallel algorithm; Design criterion; Return loss; Evolutionary computation; Printed antenna; Finite difference time-domain analysis; E shape; Numerical method; particle swarm optimization; patch antenna; Broadband antennas; Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD); Implementation; Computation time; Frequency band; Biomimetics; Simulation; Multifrequency antenna; Parallel computation; Swarm intelligence; Robustness
• ISSN: 0018-926X; 1558-2221
• DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2005.858842

This paper presents a novel evolutionary optimization methodology for multiband and wide-band patch antenna designs. The particle swarm optimization (PSO) and the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) are combined to achieve the optimum antenna satisfying a certain design criterion. The antenna geometric parameters are extracted to be optimized by PSO, and a fitness function is evaluated by FDTD simulations to represent the performance of each candidate design. The optimization process is implemented on parallel clusters to reduce the computational time introduced by full-wave analysis. Two examples are investigated in the paper: first, the design of rectangular patch antennas is presented as a test of the parallel PSO/FDTD algorithm. The optimizer is then applied to design E-shaped patch antennas. It is observed that by using different fitness functions, both dual-frequency and wide-band antennas with desired performance are obtained by the optimization. The optimized E-shaped patch antennas are analyzed, fabricated, and measured to validate the robustness of the algorithm. The measured less than - 18 dB return loss (for dual-frequency antenna) and 30.5% bandwidth (for wide-band antenna) exhibit the prospect of the parallel PSO/FDTD algorithm in practical patch antenna designs.