Design and Optimization of Miniaturized Microstrip Patch Antennas Using a Genetic Algorithm

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to propose an approach for improving the performance of miniaturized microstrip patch antennas (MPAs) that are loaded with a thin film consisting of a high relative permittivity material. The method uses a thin film to decrease the antenna’s resonance frequency while keeping the antenna’s patch dimensions. For the enhancement of the antenna’s performance with a thin film, the dimensions of the patch of the designed antenna are optimized utilizing genetic algorithms (GAs). The resonance frequency of the microstrip patch antenna was changed from 5.8 GHz to 4.0 GHz, and the area of the proposed antenna was minimized by around 60%, especially in comparison to a conventional antenna alone without thin film. Most of the performances of the proposed antenna such as the return loss, bandwidth, and voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) were improved.