Reconfigurable microstrip antenna design based on genetic algorithm

At present, there are two main domains to be researched for reconfigurable antennas; one is to reconfigure the radiation patterns at fixed operating frequencies, the other is to reconfigure the operating frequencies with uniform radiation patterns. However, the core of the desired characteristics of a modern reconfigurable antenna is that the antenna can reconfigure the radiation patterns over an extremely wide band. There is a large gap between present research and the ultimate objective. A novel reconfigurable microstrip antenna scheme is presented; it has advantages of low profile, light weight, conformability, and, especially, ease of fabrication and integration with RF devices. The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method and GA optimizers are used to optimize the antenna states according to the selected goals. We attempt to explore the possibilities of a microstrip antenna for reconfiguring radiation characteristics over an extremely wide band. The design results indicate that this antenna can obtain the required goals over an ultra-wide band through reconfiguring the states of the switch array installed in the shared aperture when it operates with the higher order modes.