02/06/2012
A Novel Approach for Mobile Device Design: GA-Based Distributed Optimization to Comply with OTA, SAR, and HAC Standards
Xi Lin Chen, Erdem Ofli, Nicolas Chavannes, and Niels Kuster, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Volume 54, Issue 1, pp. 22–31, February 2012, online June 1, 2012
The objective of this study was to investigate the cost and time effectiveness of virtual prototyping when applied to the optimization of antenna system design for mobile phones, compared to traditional development approaches. For the proposed evaluation, an enhanced commercial FDTD-based electromagnetic simulation platform, powered with GPU hardware acceleration and distributed network parallelization, was applied. Advanced genetic algorithms (GAs) were used to obtain robust antenna designs, targeting a multi-goal optimum within a minimum number of simulations. Various antenna structures, including folded monopoles, planar-inverted F, and folded-inverted-conformal antennas were considered. An optimized structure was developed in less than 24 hours, indicating the superiority of virtual prototyping over traditional design and optimization procedures for reducing costs, improving quality, and, particularly, in reducing development time.
The scientific and technical impact of the study can be summarized as:
- This study investigates the practical implementation of GA-based optimization algorithm on virtual prototyping of mobile phone antennas.
- It demonstrates the efficiency and capability of GA algorithms with distributed computing resources.
- Several embedded antenna designs are optimized and investigated, the choice of a suitable antenna design for the investigated device configuration is discussed with respect to various radiation/dosimetry/EMC standards (TRP/SAR/HAC).
- The analysis of this study indicates that virtual prototyping of antenna design is critical in the initial stage of product development to ensure the compliance of OTA and dosimetry standards.