Global optimization and antennas synthesis and diagnosis, part one: Concepts, tools, strategies and performances

This is the first of two companion papers on global optimization and antenna analysis and synthesis. In Part I, an analysis of the problems involved in Global Optimization is presented by critically discussing the basic concepts and tools, the performances to be expected, the required computational complexity and the guidelines to select algorithms solving efficiently the problem at hand. The relevance of stochastic techniques is enhanced and the role of double phase algorithms is stressed. The proof of the convergence property of an idealized version of a simplified evolutionary algorithm is provided. In Part II, the selected algorithm, a hybrid evolutionary algorithm, is tested against two real world problems relevant in electromagnetics, the power synthesis of contoured beam hybrid reflector antennas and the reflector antenna diagnosis from only amplitude data. The results of an extensive numerical analysis are presented.