Design of a modified monopole antenna using PSO based on FEKO for wireless communications

In this article, a method is discussed to design and optimize a planar monopole antenna by particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm based on FEKO. The simple rectangular monopole antenna with an L slot is proposed for DCS-1800 (1.7-1.88 GHz), PCS-1900 (1.85-1.99 GHz), UMTS (1.92-2.17 GHz), WLAN (2.4-2.484 GHz), and WiMAX ( 2.305-2.69 GHz) operations. Planar monopole antennas with characteristic of broad band can adequately cover the overall operating band (1.7-2.69 GHz). For the purpose of suppressing the interference from other systems, the PSO/FEKO method is employed not only to maintain the return loss less than -10 dB within the desired bandwidth but also to urge the S₁₁ at extreme frequencies equal to -10 dB, respectively. Details of the evolutionary design method of PSO based on FEKO are presented. The L-slot planar monopole antenna can be easily fabricated using a single metal plate, making the proposed antenna easy to construct at a low cost. Details of the experimental and theoretical results for the optimized antenna are presented and compared, testifying the validity of this design method.