Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 May 2011
In this paper, the author proposes a method based on two recent evolutionary algorithms (EAS): particle swarm optimization (PSO) and differential evolution (DE) to design nonuniformly placed linear arrays of half-wavelength long dipoles. The objective of the work is to generate pencil beam in horizontal (for parallel array) and vertical (for collinear array) plane with minimum standing wave ratio (SWR) and fixed side lobe level (SLL). Dynamic range ratio (DRR) of current amplitude distribution is kept at a fixed value. Two different examples have been presented having different array alignments. For both the configurations parallel and collinear, the excitation distribution and geometry of individual array elements are perturbed to accomplish the designing goal. Coupling effect between the elements is analyzed using induced electromotive force (EMF) method and minimized in terms of SWR. Numerical results obtained from both the algorithms are statistically compared to present a comprehensive overview. Beside this, the article also efficiently computes the trade-off curves between SLL, beam width, and number of array elements for nonuniformly spaced parallel array. It featured the average element spacing versus SWR curve for nonuniformly separated arrays. Furthermore, minimum achievable SLL performances of uniformly and nonuniformly spaced parallel arrays are compared for same average spacing in the proposed work.