A fully automated approach for designing metasurfaces whose unit cell may include metallic vias is proposed. Towards this aim, a ternary version of the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is employed in order to find the optimal metallic pattern and via-hole positions simultaneously. In the proposed design method, the upper surface of the unit cell is first pixelated. One of the possible three states of a metallic covered pixel, an uncovered etched pixel and a pixel containing a centered metalized via-hole is assigned to each pixel. The optimal state of each pixel is then determined by utilizing a ternary PSO algorithm to achieve favorable design goals. This method can be used for designing various metasurfaces as well as other via-assisted electromagnetic structures. As a proof of concept, the proposed method was applied to design two surfaces: a frequency selective surface with a minimum resonance frequency, and a linear-to-circular polarization converter with a maximum polarization conversion bandwidth. Comparison of the results with previous works confirms the efficiency and capability of the proposed method to design diverse metasurfaces in an automated fashion without the need for any theoretical or physical model.
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