Synthesis of Nonuniform Array Antennas Using Particle Swarm Optimization

Abstract

As a newly discovered evolutionary algorithm, the particle swarm optimization algorithm has been widely used in the synthesis of array antennas, while it is seldom used in the synthesis of nonuniform array antennas. Two different nonuniform array antennas are optimized by binary particle swarm optimization and real particle swarm optimization in this article, which depicts the application of particle swarm optimization in the synthesis of nonuniform array antennas. Lower peak side-lobe level with uniform excitation can be obtained using this method. Meanwhile, the method of minimizing variable-searching space that can improve the efficiency of algorithm is used in particle swarm optimization. Compared with the standard genetic algorithm and the modified real genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization shows high performance in the synthesis of nonuniform array antennas. To demonstrate the universality of the algorithm, a nonuniform circular array and a sparse linear array with a directional element are synthesized as well.