Metaheuristic-optimized bell-shaped slotted pentaband patch antenna for C, X, Ku, and K band applications

Abstract The current study proposes a compact metaheuristic optimization-driven design of the slotted pentaband patch antenna with a bell-shaped patch, operating in the C, X, Ku, and K bands for satellite telemetry, radar sensing, and wideband transceivers. The antenna structure comprises a bell-shaped patch with C-slots, tilted vertical edges, and three semicircular perturbations on the horizontal edge of the patch to excite several resonant modes, mainly TM10, TM11, and TM20, with uniform surface current distribution. The antenna has five resonant frequencies at 5.2, 8.4, 10.4, 12, and 19.2 GHz with a reflection coefficient of less than -15 dB and maximum antenna gains of 8.83 dB, 4.96 dB, 7.87 dB, 6.13 dB, and 6.37 dB at the corresponding resonant frequencies. The antenna also has maximum radiation and total efficiencies of at least 85% in the C and X bands and above 95% in the Ku and K bands. In addition, the antenna performance is improved using five different metaheuristic optimization techniques, and the optimal results are obtained using the multi-objective optimization technique. Among the optimization techniques, the performance of the Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm is found to be the best, with improvements of up to 4.0% in S11, 2.2% reduction in VSWR, and improvements in antenna gains and efficiencies of up to 0.7%. The proposed antenna design using the electromagnetic simulator, circuit simulator, and optimization tools provides the best platform for the proposed antenna and is further validated experimentally.