Design of broadband patch antennas using genetic algorithm optimization

Patch antennas are cheap, simple, robust, inexpensive and compatible with MMIC designs. But the narrow bandwidth and low efficiency are the major drawbacks. Nowadays, the patch antenna is a widely used antenna type in many applications such as cellular phones, pagers, satellite communication and missiles. In this research, Genetic Algorithm optimization (GAO) method is used to design the shape of the patch, thickness of the dielectric substrate and the permittivity of the substrate in order to optimize the bandwidth performance and gain of center feed patch antennas. It is found that thin broadband fragmented single probe feed patch antennas with fractional bandwidths up to 51% can be easily designed using GAO.