Optimisation of non-uniform time-modulated conformal arrays using an improved non-dominated sorting genetic-II algorithm

This study investigates the synthesis of the radiation patterns of the time-modulated (TM) conformal arrays in real applications, including the optimisation of the layout, the switch-on instants and pulse durations. An improved non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (INSGA-II) is proposed to optimise the non-uniform TM conformal arrays. To maintain a balance between the exploitation and exploration ability, controlled elitism is employed and crossover operator based on the competition and selection among several crossover offspring is used in INSGA-II to effectively explore the search space. Two design instances, including aperiodic TM cylindrical conformal array and airship conformal array, are optimised via INSGA-II, in which both the bandwidth and radiation patterns of the radiating elements are considered during the design process. The design results obtained with INSGA-II are compared with the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II and mutiobjective particle swarm optimisation, and numerical results demonstrate that the proposed INSGA-II exhibits promising potential ability for designing the aperiodic TM conformal arrays.