A genetic algorithm for the level control of nulls and side lobes in linear antenna arrays

The design problem of imposing deeper nulls in the interference direction of uniform linear antenna arrays under the constraints of a reduced side lobe level (SLL) and a fixed first null beam width (FNBW) is modeled as a simple optimization problem. The real-coded genetic algorithm (RGA) is used to determine an optimal set of current excitation weights of the antenna elements and the optimum inter-element spacing that satisfies the design goal. Three design examples are presented to illustrate the use of the RGA, and the optimization goal in each example is easily achieved. The numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.