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A Topology optimization technique is used for complete layout optimization of the radiating element of a planar monopole antenna. The design objective is to find a conductivity distribution that maximizes the energy received by the planar monopole over the frequency band 1-10 GHz. The finite difference time domain method (FDTD) is used for the numerical calculations, and an adjoint problem is derived to calculate the corresponding sensitivities. Numerical results show a promising use of topology optimization techniques for the systematic design of ultrawideband monopoles.

We introduce an approach to carry out layout optimization of metallic antenna parts. An optimization technique first developed for the optimization of load-bearing elastic structures is adapted for the purpose of metallic antenna design. The local conductivity values in a given region are used as design variables and are iteratively updated by a gradient-based optimization algorithm. Given a set of time-domain signals from exterior sources, the design objective is here to maximize the energy received by the antenna and transmitted to a coaxial cable. The optimization proceeds through a sequence of coarsely-defined lossy designs with successively increasing details and less losses as the iterations proceed. The objective function gradient is derived based on the FDTD discretization of Maxwell's equations and is expressed in terms of field solutions of the original antenna problem and an adjoint field problem. The same FDTD code, but with different wave sources, is used for both the original antenna problem and the adjoint problem. For any number of design variables, the gradient is evaluated on the basis of only two FDTD simulations, one for the original antenna problem and another for the adjoint field problem. We demonstrate the capability of the method by optimizing the radiating patch of both UWB monopole and microstrip antennas. The UWB monopole is designed to radiate over a wide frequency band 1-10 GHz, while the microstrip patch is designed for single and dual frequency band operation. In these examples, there are more than 20,000 design variables, and the algorithm typically converges in less than 150 iterations. The optimization results show a promising use of the proposed approach as a general method for conceptual design of near-resonance metallic antennas.

We use a gradient-based material distribution approach to design conductive parts of microstrip antennas in an efficient way. The approach is based on solutions of the 3D Maxwell's equation computed by the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. Given a set of incoming waves, our objective is to maximize the received energy by determining the conductivity on each Yee-edge in the design domain. The objective function gradient is computed by the adjoint-field method. A microstrip antenna is designed to operate at 1.5 GHz with 0.3 GHz bandwidth. We present two design cases. In the first case, the radiating patch and the finite ground plane are designed in two separate phases, whereas in the second case, the radiating patch and the ground plane are simultaneously designed. We use more than 58,000 design variables and the algorithm converges in less than 150 iterations. The optimized designs have impedance bandwidths of 13% and 36% for the first and second design case, respectively.

We present an approach to design from scratch planar microwave antennas for the purpose of ultra-wideband (UWB) near-field sensing. Up to about 120 000 design variables associated with square grids on planar substrates are subject to design, and a numerical optimization algorithm decides, after around 200 iterations, for each edge in the grid whether it should consist of metal or a dielectric. The antenna layouts produced with this approach show UWB impedance matching properties and near-field coupling coefficients that are flat over a much wider frequency range than a standard UWB antenna. The properties of the optimized antennas are successfully cross-verified with a commercial software and, for one of the designs, also validated experimentally. We demonstrate that an antenna optimized in this way shows a high sensitivity when used for near-field detection of a phantom with dielectric properties representative of muscle tissue.

We present expressions for the derivatives of the outgoing signal in coaxial cables with respect to the conductivity distribution in a specific domain. The derived expressions can be used with gradient-based optimization methods to design metallic electromagnetic devices, such as antennas and waveguides. We use the adjoint-field method to derive the expressions and the derivation is based on the 3D time-domain Maxwell's equations. We present two derivative expressions; one expression is derived in the continuous case and the second is derived based on the FDTD discretization of Maxwell's equations, including the uniaxial perfectly match layer (UPML) to simulate the radiation boundary condition. The derivatives are validated through a numerical example, where derivatives computed by the adjoint-field method are compared against derivatives computed with finite differences. Up to 7 digits precision matching is obtained.

To maximize the matching between a coaxial cable and rectangular waveguides, we present a computational topology optimisation approach that decides for each point in a given domain whether to hold a good conductor or a good dielectric. The conductivity is determined by a gradient-based optimisation method that relies on finite-difference time-domain solutions to the 3D Maxwell’s equations. Unlike previously reported results in the literature for this kind of problems, our design algorithm can efficiently handle tens of thousands of design variables that can allow novel conceptual waveguide designs. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach by presenting optimised transitions with reflection coefficients lower than −15dB over more than a 60% bandwidth, both for right-angle and end-launcher configurations. The performance of the proposed transitions is crossverified with a commercial software, and one design case is validated experimentally.