DESIGN OF CIRCULAR MICROSTRIP PATCH ANTENNA WITH AND

WITHOUT AIR GAPS USING GENETIC ALGORITHM

Email: cshivajib4u@gmail.com & pradeep_zip22@yahoo.co.in

Abstract: In this paper, Genetic Algorithm has been applied to calculate the optimized
radius of Circular Microstrip Antenna with and with out air gaps, as there is no
closed form formula to calculate the radius of circular patch antenna. Resonant
frequency in the dominant TM11 mode, dielectric constant and thickness of the
substrate are taken as inputs to GA, which gives the optimized radius of the
antenna. It is seen that the GA results are more accurate than that obtained by using
other techniques as mentioned in the reference. GA based method takes less
computational time and are in good agreement with experimental results.
Indexing terms: Genetic Algorithm, Circular Micro strip Antenna, Resonant frequency

Introduction: Circular micro strip antenna, due to its simple design features, is still
popular in industrial and commercial applications. However, due to inherent narrow
bandwidth, the resonant frequency or the dimension of the patch antenna must be
predicted accurately. In this paper, an attempt has been made to use Genetic Algorithm
(GA) to calculate the radius of circular microstrip antenna to meet the accuracy
requirement.
Genetic Algorithms[1-2] are the search techniques based on biological genetics. In
recent years, GAs are gaining popularity in electromagnetic applications [3-4] , where
generally the number of variables are more, for their easy searching process, global
optimality and probabilistic nature etc. GAs are capable of optimizing nonlinear multi-
modal functions of many variables. They require no derivative information and they
robustly find global or very strong local optima. Numerical experiments indicate that
using GA good solutions to difficult antenna can be obtained quickly even in less time.
The circular patch antenna with its design parameters i.e. thickness of substrate(s)
‘h1’ and ‘h2’ and radius of circular patch ‘a’ is shown in figure 1.
 e a

ε h1

h
ε0
h2

Figure 1 Circular Patch Antenna with Air Gap

The fitness functions used in GA to optimize the circular patch are taken from paper[5].
Problem Formulation: GA performs its searching process through population to
population instead of point-to-point search. The most favorite advantage of GA is its
parallel architecture. They use probabilistic and deterministic rules. A member in a
population called a chromosome, is represented by a binary string comprising 0, 1 bits.
Bits of the chromosome are randomly selected and the length of bit strings is defined in
relevance. An initial randomly generated population is required at first to start the
methodology. From initial population child population is born guided by three operators
such as reproduction, crossover and mutation. Newborn child members are judged by
their fitness function values. The fitness function is formulated as per the goal concerned.
These child members act as parents in the next iteration. In GA, the iteration is called as
generation. The resonant frequency of circular microstrip antenna is expressed as[5],
αnm c
f r ,nm =
2πaeffε r eff ,
(i)
Where,
 α nm is the mth zero of the derivative of Bessel function of order n, the value of
which(α01=3.832, α11=1.841, α21=3.054, α31=4.201) determines the lowest and higher
modes as TM110,TM210,TM010and TM310 modes
C is the velocity of light in free space.
aeff is the effective radius of the circular microstrip disk as

aeff = a ( 1 + q ) (ii)

ε r ,eff is expressed as
4ε reε r ,dyn
ε r ,eff =
( )
2
ε re + ε r ,dyn

ε r (1 + h2 / h1 )
ε re =
( 1 + ε r .h2 / h1 )
ε r ,dyn is a function of the static main and static fringing capacitances

cdyn ( ε = ε oε re )
ε r ,dyn =
cdyn ( ε = ε o )

where cdyn is total dynamic capacitance defined as

cdyn = co ,dyn + ce ,dyn

co ,dyn & ce,dyn are the dynamic main and dynamic fringing capacitances of the different

modes determined from static main and static fringing capacitances co , stat & ce , stat ,

respectively as co ,dyn = γ n co ,stat where

γ n = 1.0 for n = 0
= 0.3525 n=1
= 0.2865 n=2
= 0.2430 n=3
and
 1
ce ,dyn = ce ,stat
δ
where
δ = 1 for n = 0
= 2 for n ≠ 0

The static fringing capacitance is given by

ce ,stat ( ε ) =co ,stat ε( )q.
where
co ,stat ( ε ) =εoε π
re
a 2
h/
q = u + v + uv
1 + ε re 4
u=
ε re π a
h
2 ln p 1 
v= +  − 1 / g
3t 8 + π a t 
h
t = 0.37 + 0.63 ε re
2
a
1 + 0.8   + ( 0.31 a / h )
4

p= h
1 + 0.9 a / h
g = 4 + 2.6 ( a / h ) + 2.9 ( h / a )

and c0 is the velocity of light.

Equation (i) is used as the fitness function of GA to optimize radius of the patch of the
antennae. The population size is taken 20 individuals, and 200 generations are produced.
The probability of crossover is set at 0.6, while the probability of mutation was equal to
0.01. The parameters taken for the Genetic algorithm are taken purely hit and trial basis
depending on the performance of the output. Resonant frequency, dielectric constant and
thickness of the substrate are given as inputs to GA, which gives the optimized radii of
the antennae.

Results: The comparisons of GA with theoretical and measured results are listed in Table
1 for eleven different fabricated circular microstrip antennae. The optimized radii
obtained using GA are in good agreement with the experimental results as listed in
column ‘V’ of the Table 1. The computational time for GA it is less than one minute.
TABLE 1 Comparison of GA and Measured Results
I II III IV V VI
Antenna Theoretical Permittivity h1 ( mm) h2 ( mm) Calculated Fabricated
No. Resonant of Radius Radius
frequency substrate(s) Using From[1,5]
(GHz) GA (mm) (mm)

1 4.945 4.55 2.35 0 7.6742 7.70

2 3.75 4.55 2.35 0 10.3837 10.4
3 2.003 4.55 2.35 0 20.0659 20.0
4 1.03 4.55 2.35 0 39.5602 39.75
5 0.825 4.55 2.35 0 49.502 49.5
6 1.51 2.33 3.175 0 35.2043 34.93
7 4.07 2.33 0.794 0 13.0196 12.7
8 4.425 2.65 1.5875 0 11.5 11.52
9 5.224 2.65 1.5875 0 9.6 9.51
10 1.2989 2.32,0 1.59 0.5 50 50.12
11 1.368 2.32,0 1.59 1.0 50 50.12

Conclusion: In present paper, radius of eleven antennae are optimized using GA. As
seen, the results obtained using GA are more close to experimental results. A highly
accurate selected fitness function in GA will give much accurate result. Application of
GA to microstrip antenna design seems to be an accurate, computationally simple and
cost effective CAD method.

Acknowledgement: The authors would like to thank Dr. Dhananda K. Mishra, Principal,
JITM, for encouragement.
References:
1. D. S. Weile and E. Michielssen, “Genetic algorithm optimization applied to
electromagnetics: A review,” IEEE Trans. Antennas propagat. vol. 45, pp.
343-353, Mar. 1997.
2. J. M. Johnson and Y. Rahmat-Samii, “Genetic algorithms in engineering
electromagnetics,” IEEE Antennas Propagat. Mag., vol. 39, pp. 7-21, Aug.
1997.
3. J. M. Johnson and Y. Rahamat-Samii, "Genetic algorithm optimization and its
application to antenna design," in Proc. IEEE Antennas Propagat. S.
Symp.,Seattle, WA,June 19-24, 1994, pp. 326-329.
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Effective Side Length Expression Obtained by Using Modified Genetic
Algorithm for the Resonant Frequency of an Equilateral Triangular Microstrip
Antenna.” International Journal of Electronics, 83. 1. July 1997, pp. 99-108.
5. D. Guha, “Resonant Frequency of Circular Microstrip Antennas with and with
out Air Gaps,” IEEE Trans. on Antennas and Propagation, vol.49, no.1, Jan.
2001, pp.55-59.