Probe-location Optimization in a Wideband Microstrip Patch Antenna using Genetic Algorithm, Particle Swarm and Nelder-Mead Optimization Methods

A comparison among three different optimization algorithms, for seeking the best probe location in a wideband microstrip patch antenna, with the objective of bandwidth enhancement, is presented in this paper. As an illustrative example, a rectangular microstrip patch antenna is designed on a TMM-6 substrate, at a center frequency of 3.75 GHz, using the design approach proposed earlier by the present authors. The initial probe location of the design, which is shown to yield 32.66 % 2: 1 VSWR bandwidth, is further optimized using the in-built Genetic Algorithm (GA), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Nelder-Mead Simplex algorithms, that are available in FEKO.