Existing studies in the literature dealing with design optimization for RF applications focused to a large extend on size and shape optimization. So far, material and topology optimization has not been pursued primarily due to the challenges associated with the fabrication of inhomogeneous materials and the limited access to versatile and efficient analysis tools. In this paper, we focus on optimum topology/material design of dielectric substrates for bandwidth enhancement of a simple patch antenna. The employed design method is the Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization (SIMP) technique formulated as a general non-linear optimization problem. A key aspect of the proposed design method is the integration of optimization tools with a fast simulator based on the finite element-boundary integral method.
