Optimization of high-directivity fan-beam antennas

This work addresses directivity improvement of a fan-beam antenna using local constrained optimization. More specifically, it demonstrates that adjustment of elementary patch sizes of a gridded patch antenna considerably improves antenna directivity without increasing its footprint. This indicates that utilization of all available degrees of freedom, i.e., genetic algorithm (GA) optimization and continuous optimization of elementary patch dimensions and feeding position is critical to achieve the optimum performance.