Low‐sidelobe pattern synthesis of spherical array using the hybrid genetic algorithm

Aiming at increasing the radiation bandwidth and reducing the antenna size, this article designs the stacked patch antenna and forms the spherical antenna array by virtue of fractal geometry. To minimize the sidelobe level and improve the convergence speed, a hybrid genetic algorithm integrating the main features of genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) called HGAPSO is adopted. Furthermore, a modified Bernstein polynomial is exploited to reduce the number of optimization variables as well as to obtain a smooth unimodal amplitude distribution. Compared with the uniformly excited conformal antenna array, the maximum relative sidelobe can be reduced by more than 10 dB. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 51: 1487–1491, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.24348