Compact antenna optimization for environment robustness

Study of novel radiating geometries and availability of accurate analysis tools have had a contribution in the explosive growth of mobile communications by enabling highly functional and aesthetic devices bearing low cost radiating structures. A critical consideration in the design of antennas for mobile terminals is the impact of different operational scenarios on performance. The importance of characterizing those effects is clear; however, conducting such a study is difficult and time-consuming since each operational scenario must be modeled accurately and presents in principle a completely different (and usually much more complex) electromagnetic problem. Even more complicated is the consideration of such effects at design stage given its iterative nature.This work presents an approach to environment-aware optimization of compact antennas, in which the performance of candidate structures under a number of operational scenarios is evaluated at the design stages. The approach builds upon a previously published work (J.L. Araque Quijano, 2006), and to our knowledge constitutes a study not performed elsewhere. This work takes advantage of the genetic algorithm in conjunction with an efficient MoM implementation to attack the difficult problem of optimizing antenna shape in the quest of good performance for the various environments considered.