July 26th, 2024

Genetically synthesized supergain broadband wire-bundle antenna

A study in Communications Engineering presents a genetically synthesized supergain broadband wire-bundle antenna, achieving high gain and bandwidth, optimized through genetic algorithms, enhancing future wireless communication technologies.

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Genetically synthesized supergain broadband wire-bundle antenna

A recent study published in Communications Engineering details the development of a genetically synthesized supergain broadband wire-bundle antenna, which is crucial for enhancing wireless communication capabilities. The research, led by Dmytro Vovchuk and colleagues, focuses on achieving high-gain performance through a novel antenna design that utilizes a near-field coupled wire bundle. This design aims to overcome the limitations of traditional antennas, which often require larger apertures to increase gain. The study introduces a concept of spectrally overlapping resonant cascading, allowing for both high gain and sufficient operational bandwidth.

The antenna was optimized using genetic algorithms, resulting in a predicted gain of 8.81 dBi within a compact half-wavelength volume, with experimental results showing a gain of 8.22 dBi and a fractional bandwidth of 13%. The optimization process involved adjusting the positions and lengths of multiple wire elements to maximize performance while minimizing size. This approach not only meets the demands for miniaturization in wireless devices but also addresses challenges related to fabrication imperfections and material losses.

The findings suggest that this antenna architecture could be adapted for various frequency bands, making it a versatile solution for future wireless communication technologies. The research highlights the potential of genetic optimization in antenna design, paving the way for more efficient and effective communication systems.

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By @drwu - 7 months
This looks like just a little bit advanced trivial optimizations for reducing size of high gain antennae. Usually I expect to find such articles in IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

What is the reason that it appears on Nature? Just because the genetic methods become the hype (again)?

By @jonathanlydall - 7 months
Initially I misread "supergain" as "supergrain" in the title and was especially intrigued.
By @twic - 7 months
Genetic optimisation seems like an odd choice here. The fundamental operation of genetic optimisation is crossing over - taking two solutions, and picking half the parameters from one, and half from the other. This makes sense if parameters make independent contributions to fitness. But the case of antenna design, surely that's exactly what they don't? The position of each element relative to the other elements matters enormously. If you had two decent antenna designs, cut both in half, and glued the halves together, i would expect that to be a crappy antenna.

It would be interesting to see an evaluation of genetic optimisation vs more conventional techniques like simplex or BOBYQA, or anything else in NLopt.

By @progbits - 7 months
See also this funky looking antenna NASA made with genetic algorithm in 2006:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolved_antenna#/media/File%...

By @Havoc - 7 months
Disappointed that it doesn't look weird & alien :(