SBIR Phase II: A Search Engine for Antenna Design

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目旨在开发和推出一种软件工具，将先进的人工智能算法应用于天线设计和优化。手动天线设计和优化方法是时间和劳动密集型的，限制了复杂性，并且需要大量的专业知识。遗传算法（GA）优化已被证明成功地快速找到有效的天线设计解决方案，而不是通常通过工程直觉。目前，要利用这些搜索算法的力量，工程师必须是遗传算法和电磁学的专家。在第一阶段，展示了高度自动化设计方法的可行性，在这种方法中，可以在不需要大量指导的情况下生成有用的天线：用户只需输入设计要求（例如，RF性能、尺寸等），并且自动优化产生顺应性设计。如果成功，这项技术有望提高商业和政府客户未来天线应用的性能和经济性。 世界正处于新的无线、移动的和RF系统数量的爆炸式增长之中，所有这些系统都依赖于一个或多个天线。然而，天线设计在过去20年里几乎没有改变，前期成本很高，试错法缓慢而低效。X5 Systems正试图将下一代天线设计方法推向市场：更快、更好、更便宜。拟议的软件系统的商业潜力包括感兴趣的应用领域的公司在移动的和无线，RFID和消费电子产品，以及政府机构-特别是应用程序，具有严格的性能，进度和成本要求。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project seeks to develop and launch a software tool that applies advanced AI algorithms to antenna design and optimization. Manual antenna design and optimization methods are time- and labor-intensive, limit complexity, and require significant expertise. Genetic algorithm (GA) optimization has demonstrated success at quickly finding effective antenna design solutions not ordinarily found through engineering intuition. To harness the power of these search algorithms currently, an engineer must be an expert in both GAs and Electromagnetics. In Phase I, feasibility of a highly-automated design approach where useful antennas can be generated without requiring significant guidance was demonstrated: the user simply inputs design requirements (e.g., RF performance, dimensions, etc.), and an automated optimization produces compliant designs. If successful, this technology promises to improve the performance and economics of future antenna applications for commercial and government customers. The world is in the midst of an explosion in the number of new wireless, mobile, and RF systems - all of which rely on one or more antennas. Yet antenna design has changed little in the past two decades, with large up-front costs and slow, inefficient trial-and-error methods. X5 Systems is attempting to bring to market a next generation way to design antennas: one that is faster, better, cheaper. The commercial potential of the proposed software system encompasses application areas of interest to companies in mobile and wireless, RFID, and consumer electronics, as well as government agencies - especially applications that have exacting performance, schedule, and cost requirements.