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Beam steering and cross-polarization decoupling enhancement for $4\times4$ microstrip antenna arrays with differential evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2025

Gabriel Pardinho Paulena Open the ORCID record for Gabriel Pardinho Paulena [Opens in a new window] ,
Juner Menezes Vieira Open the ORCID record for Juner Menezes Vieira [Opens in a new window] ,
Edson Rodrigo Schlosser Open the ORCID record for Edson Rodrigo Schlosser [Opens in a new window]  and
Marcos V. T. Heckler Open the ORCID record for Marcos V. T. Heckler [Opens in a new window]
Gabriel Pardinho Paulena
Affiliation:
Laboratório de Eletromagnetismo, Micro-ondas e Antenas (LEMA), Universidade Federal do Pampa (UNIPAMPA), Alegrete, RS, Brazil
Juner Menezes Vieira
Affiliation:
Division of Space Electronics and Computing, National Institute for Space Research (INPE), São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil
Edson Rodrigo Schlosser
Affiliation:
Laboratório de Eletromagnetismo, Micro-ondas e Antenas (LEMA), Universidade Federal do Pampa (UNIPAMPA), Alegrete, RS, Brazil
Marcos V. T. Heckler*
Affiliation:
Laboratório de Eletromagnetismo, Micro-ondas e Antenas (LEMA), Universidade Federal do Pampa (UNIPAMPA), Alegrete, RS, Brazil
*
Corresponding author: Marcos V. T. Heckler; Email: marcos.heckler@unipampa.edu.br
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Abstract

This paper describes the application of the differential evolution (DE) method for synthesizing radiation patterns of two 4×4 microstrip planar antenna arrays. The performance of the DE algorithm was evaluated by optimizing beam steering with simultaneous sidelobe level (SLL) control. Additionally, the algorithm optimizes the cross-polarization decoupling (XPD) to improve the polarization purity. In the optimization process, the active element patterns were incorporated into the DE algorithm to account for mutual coupling and truncation of the ground plane and the substrate in the determination of the excitation coefficients of each array element. The results demonstrate that the DE method can be effectively used to optimize radiation patterns particularly in terms of main beam pointing direction, SLL control, and XPD with fast convergence and low computational cost.

Keywords

antenna arrayscircular polarizationcross-polarization decouplingdifferential evolution

Information

Type
Research Paper
Information
International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies , First View , pp. 1 - 10
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press in association with The European Microwave Association.

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