Advances in Pixelated 2D Electromagnetic Optimization with Distributed and Lumped Devices for Microwave Circuit Design

This paper presents a further research progress in optimization of pixelated electromagnetic structures for design of microwave planar structures. A hybrid Wilkinson power splitter is considered, which involves the presence of lumped resistors and/or capacitors within the pixelated layout. A 2-step genetic optimization approach is proposed to perform optimal design including pixelated layout, resistor/capacitor placement and value optimization. The proposed numerical example demonstrates how using the proposed technique, a 54% bandwidth solution can be achieved at X-band: a result well in line with, if not even outperforming, the best conventional wideband splitters.