Thinning of planar circular array antennas using Firefly Algorithm

In this paper, a new optimization technique known as Firefly Algorithm (FA) is used for antenna array synthesis. FA is an evolutionary global optimization technique inspired from flashing light of fireflies. FA is used for thinning of multiple concentric circular ring arrays. The aim is to achieve a uniformly excited antenna array that will produce a narrow beamwidth and minimum side lobe level (SLL). The low SLL is achieved by thinning the ring array. The ring array taken in this work is a nine ring concentric circular antenna array. Results demonstrate that the elements in array can be brought down to 129 from 279 in number with concurrent reduction in SLL of 20.30 dB with a fixed first null beam-width.