Abstract-A novel microstrip grid array antenna that is simultaneously high in gain and wide in bandwidth is proposed. To enhance its bandwidth, the antenna adopts elliptically shaped and variably dimensioned radiation elements as well as a linearly tapered ground plane, and is optimized by a parallel genetic algorithm (GA) on a cluster system. A prototype antenna was fabricated and tested. Results of simulation and measurement agree well and show the antenna exhibits encouraging properties, e.g., a maximum gain of approximately 15.1 dBi at 5.8 GHz; the |S 11 | < −10 dB bandwidth and the 3 dB gaindrop bandwidth are 25.6% (from 5.03 GHz to 6.51 GHz) and 27.6% (from 5.0 GHz to 6.6 GHz), respectively, of the center frequency, both of which are much wider than that of conventional microstrip grid array antennas. Moreover, the overlap between the antenna's impedance bandwidth and the gain bandwidth results in a wide effective operating frequency bandwidth of 25.6%, which is the largest so far achieved for microstrip grid-array antennas.

A novel Competitive Algorithm of Simulating Natural Tree Growth is presented in this paper. It searches from a simple status to complex ones and is characterized by quick convergence. The algorithm has been used to design a novel tree-shaped antenna which has an appreciably larger gain of 2 dBi more than traditional dipole antenna with a reflector of the same size. A prototype antenna has been fabricated and tested. A good agreement between the calculated and measured results verifies the feasibility of the algorithm.