Optimization methods in antenna engineering

Optimization strategies have been heavily used in the antenna design community for many years. Oftentimes, the details of the strategies and optimization configurations are left out of the designs in open literature. The goal of this chapter is to inform the reader of many of the algorithms currently being used in the antenna design community, give a detailed operation of four of the most commonly used algorithms, and compare their performance on test functions and an example antenna design problem. Additionally, several recent examples of complex antenna designs which made use of these algorithms will be examined.