Optimized Design of a Microstrip Patch Antenna for Radar Applications

Radars demand low profile and light weight antenna subsystems. Microstrip antennas possess these characteristics and serve as an alternative to the bulky and heavy weight reflector/slotted waveguide array antennas, thus an ideal choice for radars. Here, a single line fed microstrip antenna with pierced corners is designed. This antenna has improved parameters compared to the conventional square microstrip antenna. The main problem encountered is in designing the patch antenna with optimum values for various antenna parameters. In order to solve this problem, an alternative solution used is Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). The antenna is also optimized using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The parameters considered in all the cases are return loss (S11) and VSWR which was designed using FEKO software. The designed antennas are found to radiate in the C-band, which covers frequencies in the range 5-8GHz, applicable in most of the modern radars. The simulation design is carried out using CADFEKO suite.