Efficient automated design of H plane filters with rounded corners using ASM with a segmentation strategy and hybrid optimization techniques

An efficient and accurate CAD tool for the automated design of H-plane filters with rounded corners has been presented in this paper. These rounded corners are a consequence of the use of low-cost fabrication techniques. The well known ASM technique has been used in conjunction with an efficient simulator that does not take into account the presence of rounded corners and a general purpose full-wave simulator. A new segmentation procedure and a suitable hybridization of several optimization algorithms are used to increase the robustness and efficiency of ASM. Several H-plane filters have been successfully designed with this CAD tool. The time required to perform the designs has proved to be lower than in other design procedures found in the literature. The CPU cost could be drastically reduced if a more specific and efficient simulator was used for the fine model. The CAD tool does not require human intervention for performing the design.