BLADE: A Broadband Loaded Antenna DEsigner

This paper presents a software tool for designing loaded antennas equipped with matching networks for broadband or multi-band applications. The software implements a genetic algorithm to automatically optimize the large set of parameters involved in the design procedure. The graphical interface has been designed in MATLABreg to be used together with the popular NEC solver. However, the possibility of handling reduced-port models of the antenna permits the use of any kind of numerical solver for the electromagnetic analysis. Some examples of broadband and multi-band antenna designs in a complex environment demonstrate the potential of the tool