Antenna Array Optimization using Evolutionary Approaches

Antenna designers are constantly challenged with the temptation to search for optimum solutions for the design of complex electromagnetic devices. The ability of using numerical methods to accurately and efficiently characterizing the relative quality of a particular design has excited the engineers to apply stochastic global evolutionary optimizers (EO) for this objective. EO techniques have been applied with growing applications to the design of complex electromagnetic systems. Among various EO techniques, Genetic Algorithms (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) have attracted considerable attention and shown superior performance. These schemes are finding popularity in electromagnetics as design tools and problem solvers because of their flexibility, versatility and ability to optimize in complex multimodal search spaces. This paper discusses the design optimization of antenna arrays with special emphasis on evolutionary optimization techniques.