AEU - International Journal of Electronics and Communications
Design of non-uniform circular antenna arrays for side lobe reduction using the method of genetic algorithms
Introduction
The design of circular antenna arrays finds application in areas as mobile and wireless communications systems. Generally speaking, the problem of designing antenna arrays is characterized by different and conflicting requirements (beam width, side lobe level, directivity, noise sensitivity, robustness) to be satisfied. In this paper a design criterion is considered to evaluate the performance of antenna arrays: the criterion of minimum side lobe level at a fixed main beam width. In this case, the antenna array design problem consists of finding weights and antenna element separations that provide a radiation pattern with maximal side lobe level reduction. Due to the great variety of parameters involved, optimization techniques such as genetic algorithms (GA) [1] are very appropriate tools to search for the best antenna models. GA techniques are becoming widely used to solve electromagnetic problems due to their robustness, wide range of applications and readiness in their implementation. GA techniques [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8] have been fairly successful at designing linear antenna arrays. However, array configurations in which the elements are placed in a circular ring are of great interest. They have applications in radio direction finding, air and space navigation, radar, and other systems. In this paper, we apply GA techniques to the design of circular antenna arrays design of non-uniform circular antenna arrays to be a problem optimizing a single objective function, i.e., the minimization of the side lobe level at a fixed main beam width. The purpose and contribution of this paper is to present a model of problem that includes design of non-uniform circular antenna arrays for side lobe level reduction using the method of genetic algorithms. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 states the antenna array design problem we are dealing with. Then, a description of the used algorithm is presented in Section 3. Following this description the experimental setup and results are presented in Section 4. Finally, the summary and conclusions of this work along with some future line of research are presented in Section 5.
Section snippets
Problem statement
Consider a circular antenna array of antenna elements non-uniformly spaced on a circle of radius in the – plane. If the elements in the circular antenna array are taken to be isotropic sources, the radiation pattern of this array can be described by its array factor [9]. The array factor for the circular array in the – plane (Fig. 1) is given by [10]where
represents the excitation
The proposed algorithm
The main purpose of this study is to design a low side lobe radiation pattern for non-uniform circular antenna arrays with the constraint of a fixed beam width. For this purpose, we propose, to use a population-based stochastic procedure denominated genetic algorithm [11]. We chose this algorithm for its easiness of implementation. The procedure for used GA technique (Fig. 2) is described as follows.
The function generate initial population randomly and uniformly generates a set of individuals.
Experimental setup and results
The method described in the previous section was implemented to study the behavior of the radiation pattern for non-uniform circular antenna arrays. In this case, radiation patterns of the circular arrays with main lobe steered to degrees are considered. Several experiments were carried out with different number of antenna elements (). In the experiments the algorithm parameters, after a trial and error procedure, were set as follows: maximum number of generations ,
Conclusions
This paper illustrates how to model the design of non-uniform circular antenna arrays for maximal side lobe level reduction under the constraint of a fixed beam width. The well-known method of genetic algorithms is proposed as the solution for this problem design. The method of genetic algorithms efficiently computes the design of non-uniform circular antenna arrays to generate a radiation pattern with maximal side lobe level reduction with the constraint of a fixed beam width. Experimental
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the anonymous referees for their valuable comments. This work was supported by the PROMEP of the SEP in Mexico and the Mexican National Science and Technology Council, CONACyT.
Marco A. Panduro received the M.S. degree in Electronics of High Frequency and the Ph.D. degree in Electronics and Telecommunications from the CICESE Research Center in Ensenada, B.C., Mexico, in 2001 and 2004, respectively. He has been a Professor and Member of the Scientific Staff of the Electronics Communications Department at UAT Mexico since 2005. His current interests include antenna arrays, smart adaptive antennas, microwave devices and optimization via genetic algorithms.
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Marco A. Panduro received the M.S. degree in Electronics of High Frequency and the Ph.D. degree in Electronics and Telecommunications from the CICESE Research Center in Ensenada, B.C., Mexico, in 2001 and 2004, respectively. He has been a Professor and Member of the Scientific Staff of the Electronics Communications Department at UAT Mexico since 2005. His current interests include antenna arrays, smart adaptive antennas, microwave devices and optimization via genetic algorithms.
Aldo L. Mendez obtained his B.S. in Engineering from the Universidad Veracruzana (1995), M.Sc. from CENIDET (1997) and his Ph.D. from the CICESE (2003) all them in Mexico. He has been member of the scientific staff of Electronics and Telecommunications department at UAT since 2004. His current research interests include MAC and scheduling modeling for mobile communications.
Rene Dominguez obtained his B.S. in Physics at Universidad Veracruzana (1995), his M.Sc. from INAOE (1998). In 2002 he obtained the Ph.D. at INAOE, all them in Mexico. He currently works in the Electronics Communications Department of UAT in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico and his research area is non-linear optics effects semiconductor materials, photorefractive materials, and communication systems.
Gerardo Romero received his B.S., M.Sc., and the Ph.D. degree in Automatic Control from the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon, in 1990, 1993 and 1997, respectively. He has been Head of the Electronic Department of the UAM Reynosa Rodhe since 1999. His research interests are in robust stability of linear and nonlinear systems, control applications, and communication systems.