Optimal Inverse Design Based on Memetic Algorithms—Part I: Theory and Implementation

A memetic framework for optimal inverse design is proposed by combining a local gradient-based procedure and a robust global scheme. The procedure is based on method-of-moment (MoM) matrices and does not demand full inversion of a system matrix. Fundamental bounds are evaluated for all optimized metrics in the same manner, providing natural stopping criteria and quality measures for realized devices. Compared to density-based topology optimization, the proposed routine does not require filtering or thresholding. Compared to commonly used heuristics, the technique is significantly faster, still preserving a high level of versatility and robustness. This is a two-part article in which the first part is devoted to the theoretical background and properties, and the second part applies the method to examples of varying complexity.