Circular Antenna Array Synthesis Using Firefly Algorithm

In this article, the design of circular antenna arrays (CAAs) and concentric circular antenna arrays (CCAAs) of isotropic radiators with optimum side lobe level (SLL) reduction is studied. The newly proposed global evolutionary optimization method; namely, the firefly algorithm (FA) is used to determine an optimum set of weights and positions for CAAs, and an optimum set of weights for CCAAs, that provides a radiation pattern with optimum SLL reduction with the constraint of a fixed major lobe beamwidth. The FA represents a new algorithm for optimization problems in electromagnetics. It is shown that the FA results provide a SLL reduction that is better than that obtained using well-known algorithms, like the particle swarm optimization, genetic algorithm (GA), and evolutionary programming. (c) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:139-146, 2014.