Automated Antenna Design Using Self-adaptive Differential Evolution Algorithm

As we knew, an evolved X-band antenna for NASA's Space Technology 5 (ST5) spacecraft had been deployed on schedule in 2006. This paper uses Self-adaptive Differential Evolution Algorithm (SaDE) to solve ST5 antenna design problem. The performance of SaDE is reported on the set of 24 benchmark functions provided by CEC2006 special session on real parameter optimization. The experimental result shows SaDE can solve ST5 antenna design problem effectively. The simulation result indicates our evolved antenna's voltage standing wave ratio performance is better than NASA evolved antenna and gain performance is competitive. Moreover, our evolved antenna was evolved on finite ground plane, the specified size for the ST5 antenna, while NASA's on infinite ground.

I Introduction

Evolutionary antenna design and optimization has been widely investigated since early 1990s [1], [2], including wire antennas [3], antenna arrays [4], helical antennas [5]. Some of them like X-band [6], S-band [7], and fish bone [8] antennas are so irregular and weird looking that seems unlikely be thought out by human.