Synthesis of non-uniformly spaced planar array geometry using Differential Evolution algorithm

In this paper, non-uniformly spaced planar antenna arrays (NUSPAA) of different geometry with uniform excitation is considered for minimization of maximum side lobe level (SLL). Configuring different planar array geometries only by switching off some elements from the basic rectangular array, the inter-element positions of the remaining elements are optimized using Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm. The proposed method can effectively reduce the number of antenna elements with reduction in SLL using the simple feed network of uniformly excited antenna array (UEAA). The MATLAB™ simulated result of optimized SLL considering different geometries of a 17 × 17 array is presented and compared to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.