Design of Novel Ultrabroadband Printed Antenna and Its Efficient Optimization Using Self-Adaptive Hybrid Differential Evolution Algorithm

A novel compact ultra-broadband-modified fork-shaped printed antenna is optimized efficiently by using a self-adaptive hybrid differential evolution (SHDE) algorithm. Firstly, a novel compact ultra-broadband-modified fork-shaped printed antenna structure is proposed. The antenna with more compact size consists of a modified fork-shaped radiator and a modified ground plane, which can cover a very wide operating frequency band. The antenna is fed by a step-shaped microstrip line, and the modified ground plane consists of some rectangular slots and an L-shaped stub. Then, the SHDE algorithm is used to determine structural dimensions of the proposed antenna, and the antenna’s performance is optimized while maintaining a cost-effective computation time. The optimized antenna with only 11.8 mm×19.7 mm size covers -10 dB reflection coefficient bandwidth of 147.6% from 3.08 to 20.46 GHz. Finally, the antenna prototype is fabricated, and the measured results basically agree with the simulated ones. The proposed antenna can be viewed as an excellent candidate for realizing ultrabroadband transmission technology.