A novel PSO-IE3D based design and optimization of a low profile Dual Slot Microstrip Patch Antenna

A dual slot microstrip path antenna has been designed and developed for operation around 2 GHz frequencies. The antenna parameters were designed using the well-known IE3D software package while the important characteristics of the antenna were optimized using adaptive particle swarm optimization (APSO) technique. The combined APSO-IE3D method gives a novel approach for best possible implementation of a probe fed low-profile dual slot patch antenna design. Simulation results show that the antenna has a bandwidth of 28.7 MHz (<-10 dB) in the frequency range of 1.95-2.0 GHz. The antenna has been fabricated on a substrate with dielectric constant of 2.4 and thickness of 1.5875 mm important antenna parameters such as gain, VSWR, directivity and return-loss were measured using network analyzers and antenna test-bench. The measured values of the antenna parameters were found to match well within tolerable limits with that of the simulated results. The basic principle of the APSO- IE3D based design of microstrip patch antenna along with the simulated and the experimental results for a dual-slot patch are presented for comparison in this work.