Complex permittivity measurement system for solid materials using complementary frequency selective surfaces

This paper describes a novel method of characterizing complex permittivity using a complementary frequency selective surface (CFSS). The CFSS provides a passband behavior and the change in the passband when a material under test (MUT) is placed adjacent to the CFSS has been used for retrieving of the complex permittivity of the MUT. The complex permittivity of the MUT are determined based on the measured bandpass resonant frequency and insertion loss of the CFSS with the MUT. This is an amplitudeonly method where phase measurements are not required. This technique offers a convenient, fast, low-cost and nondestructive measurement that is not restricted by the sample size or shap

Evaluation of microwave characterization methods for additively manufactured materials

Additive manufacturing (AM) has become more important and common in recent years. Advantages of AM include the ability to rapidly design and fabricate samples much faster than traditional manufacturing processes and to create complex internal geometries. Materials are crucial components of microwave systems and proper and accurate measurement of their dielectric properties is important to aid a high level of accuracy in design. There are numerous measurement techniques and finding the most appropriate method is important and requires consideration of all different factors and limitations. One limitation of sample preparation is that the sample size needs to fit in the measurement method. By utilizing the advantage of additive manufacturing, the material can be characterized using different measurement methods. In this paper, the additive manufacturing process and dielectric measurement methods have been critically reviewed. The test specimens for measuring dielectric properties were fabricated using fused filament fabrication (FFF)-based additive manufacturing and were measured using four different commercial dielectric properties measurement instruments including split post dielectric resonator (SPDR), rectangular waveguide, TE01δ cavity resonator, and open resonator. The measured results from the four techniques have been compared and have shown reasonable agreement with measurements within a 10 percent range

Multilayer microwave structures using thick-film technology.

Multilayer techniques, in conjunction with thick-film technology have been applied to the design and fabrication of several multilayer microwave structures to achieve the low cost and high performance goals set by modern microwave circuits and systems. To provide accurate material parameters for the design of multilayer thick-film components, a novel slit cavity resonator method has been developed that enables the relative permittivity and loss tangent of dielectric samples to be measured easily, and with high accuracy. A particular feature of this method is that it can be used to measure thick-film samples that are normally only available in relatively thin layers in a two-layer format. Rigorous electromagnetic analysis on a slit cavity has been performed that accounts for the effect of the fringing fields and the radiation from the slits. The method has been verified through measurement on several thick-film materials over X-band. Both the analytical methods and the fabrication techniques for multilayer microwave microstrip structures are presented. Several multilayer thick-film microstrip line test structures have been designed and characterised, and these provide a basic database for the design of multilayer microstrip components. A new design procedure for the multilayer end-coupled filter has been developed that enables the designer to arrive at the physical dimensions of the multilayer structure based on the filter specification. This design technique is effective as it combines the accuracy of electromagnetic (EM) analysis and the efficiency of circuit simulation. The multilayer gap, which is the most critical element of multilayer end-coupled filters, has been characterised using EM analysis and the data is incorporated into a circuit simulator. Measured and simulated results are presented that verify the new design technique. A 40% bandwidth has been achieved experimentally, which shows a very significant improvement over conventional single layer structures, where the bandwidth achievable is normally less than 5%. Novel, octave band DC blocks have been designed, fabricated and tested using a new multilayer format. The tight coupling required between the coupled lines in this component was realized by overlapping these lines in a multilayer structure. Very good agreement was obtained between measured and simulated data. The multilayer approach was also applied to the design of coupled line bandpass filters where a measured 80% bandwidth was achieved. For the first time, the properties of multilayer coupled lines using a range of different thick-film dielectrics are examined using their coupled-mode parameters. Design curves for multilayer coupled lines are obtained, that provide important information on the design of multilayer directional couplers. A practical design strategy for multilayer directional couplers is developed, which overcomes the problem of excessive computation that is normally associated with the electromagnetic optimization of multilayer circuit designs. The methodology has been verified through the design and measurement of wide bandwidth 2dB and 3dB directional couplers that were fabricated using multilayer, thick-film technology. New techniques for the design and fabrication of multilayer microwave thick-film components have thus been established, both theoretically and through practical circuit fabrication and measurement

Apparatus for high resolution microwave spectroscopy in strong magnetic fields

We have developed a low temperature, high-resolution microwave surface impedance probe that is able to operate in high static magnetic fields. Surface impedance is measured by cavity perturbation of dielectric resonators, with sufficient sensitivity to resolve the microwave absorption of sub-mm-sized superconducting samples. The resonators are constructed from high permittivity single-crystal rutile (TiO2) and have quality factors in excess of 10^6. Resonators with such high performance have traditionally required the use of superconducting materials, making them incompatible with large magnetic fields and subject to problems associated with aging and power-dependent response. Rutile resonators avoid these problems while retaining comparable sensitivity to surface impedance. Our cylindrical rutile resonators have a hollow bore and are excited in TE_01(n-d) modes, providing homogeneous microwave fields at the center of the resonator where the sample is positioned. Using a sapphire hot-finger technique, measurements can be made at sample temperatures in the range 1.1 K to 200 K, while the probe itself remains immersed in a liquid helium bath at 4.2 K. The novel apparatus described in this article is an extremely robust and versatile system for microwave spectroscopy, integrating several important features into a single system. These include: operation at high magnetic fields; multiple measurement frequencies between 2.64 GHz and 14.0 GHz in a single resonator; excellent frequency stability, with typical drifts < 1 Hz per hour; the ability to withdraw the sample from the resonator for background calibration; and a small pot of liquid helium separate from the external bath that provides a sample base temperature of 1.1 K.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Determination of the material relative permittivity in the UHF band by using T and modified ring resonators

The complete methodology of designing T- and modified ring resonators in the UHF band are presented in the paper. On the basis of proposed algorithms, the dedicated software tool has been elaborated in order to determine material parameters of contemporary substrates. The program is implemented in the Mathcad environment and it includes the base of information on known materials used in electronic products. Also, test sample series for selected substrate materials (IS680, FR408, I-SPEED PCB ISOLA and A6-S LTCC FERRO) and operating frequencies from 1 GHz to 3 GHz are analyzed in details. The special test stand with a vector network analyzer has been applied in experiments. The obtained data of relative permittivity measurements and model calculations are described, discussed and concluded

Photoresist-based polymer resonator antennas (PRAs) with lithographic fabrication and dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs) with improved performance

The demand for higher bit rates to support new services and more users is pushing wireless systems to millimetre-wave frequency bands with more available bandwidth and less interference. However at these frequencies, antenna dimensions are dramatically reduced complicating the fabrication process. Conductor loss is also significant, reducing the efficiency and gain of fabricated metallic antennas. To better utilize millimetre-wave frequencies for wireless applications, antennas with simple fabrication, higher efficiency, and larger impedance bandwidth are required. Dielectric Resonator Antennas (DRAs) offer many appealing features such as large impedance bandwidth and high radiation efficiency due to the lack of conductor and surface wave losses. DRAs also provide design flexibility and versatility. Different radiation patterns can be achieved by different geometries or resonance modes, wideband or compact antennas can be provided by different dielectric constants, and DRAs can be excited by a wide variety of feeding structures. Nevertheless, compared to their metallic counterparts, fabrication of DRAs is challenging since they have traditionally been made of high permittivity ceramics, which are naturally hard and extremely difficult to machine and cannot be easily made in an automatic way. The fabrication of these three dimensional structures is even more difficult at millimetre-wave frequencies where the size of the antenna is reduced to the millimetre or sub-millimetre range, and tolerances to common manufacturing imperfections are even smaller. These fabrication problems restrict the wide use of DRAs, especially for high volume commercial applications. A new approach to utilize the superior features of DRAs for commercial applications, introduced in this thesis, is to exploit polymer-based resonator antennas (PRAs), which dramatically simplifies fabrication due to the natural softness and results in a wide impedance bandwidth due to the low permittivity of polymers. Numerous polymer types with exceptional characteristics can be used to fulfill the requirements of particular applications or achieve extraordinary benefits. For instance, in this thesis photoresist polymers facilitate the fabrication of PRAs using lithographic processes. Another advantage derived from this approach is the capability of mixing polymers with a wide variety of fillers to produce composite materials with improved or extraordinary characteristics. The key contributions of this thesis are in introducing SU-8 photoresist as a radiating material, developing three lithographic methods to fabricate photoresist-ceramic composite structures, introducing a simple and non-destructive measurement method to define electrical properties of the photoresist composites, and demonstrating these structures as improved antenna components. It is shown that pure SU-8 resonators can be highly efficient antennas with wideband characteristics. To achieve more advantages for RF applications, the microwave properties of photoresists are modified by producing ceramic composite materials. X-ray lithography fabrication is optimized and as a result one direct and two indirect methods are proposed to pattern ultra thick (up to 2.3 mm) structures and complicated shapes with an aspect ratio as high as 36:1. To measure the permittivity and loss tangent of the resulting materials, a modified ring resonator technique in one-layer and two-layer microstrip configurations is developed. This method eliminates the requirement to metalize the samples and enables characterization of permittivity and dielectric loss in a wide frequency range from 2 to 40 GHz. Various composite PRAs with new designs (e.g. frame-based and strip-fed structures) are lithographically fabricated, tested, and discussed. The prototype antennas offer -10 dB bandwidths as large as 50% and gain in the range of 5 dBi

Microwave resonant sensor for measurement of ionic concentration in aqueous solutions

Nitrate efflux from agricultural lands in the Midwestern United States mixes with surface streams and creates hypoxic conditions in the Gulf of Mexico, which lead to destruction of aquatic ecosystems. Besides, excess nitrate in drinking water poses a serious threat to human health, including blue baby syndrome, birth defects, and cancer. The current nitrate management techniques are inefficient and expensive, and a major reason for this is the lack of low-cost, effective ionic concentration monitoring systems. The dependence of nitrate concentration on local hydrology means that laboratory techniques yield incomplete data, whereas the available real-time monitoring techniques have drawbacks like exorbitant cost, ion selectivity issues, and others. This research aims to bridge the gap between reliable concentration monitoring and economic feasibility by developing a low-cost, effective, real time ion monitoring system which is field deployable and sensitive to changes in ionic concentration at agriculturally-relevant levels. In this work, a resonant sensor is designed using an open-ended coaxial transmission line which can be evanescently perturbed by a liquid sample and shows a shift in its resonant frequency on change of ionic concentration of the sample. The dimensions of the coaxial resonator are optimized to ensure high sensitivity to changes in the ionic concentration of the sample at relevant concentrations, low manufacturing costs, and small physical dimensions to enable field deployment. The resonant sensor design is followed by the design and optimization of a suitable coupling structure which can take two-port transmission measurements to measure the characteristics of the resonator. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) simulations are carried out using ANSYS HFSS, using as input data the complex permittivity of aqueous solution samples with varying concentrations of nitrate, sulfate, and chloride ions. Deionized water is taken as a reference sample, and a clear correlation between shift in resonant frequency and ionic concentration is observed for each of the three resonant modes studied, with the sensor being highly sensitive to concentration changes at agriculturally relevant concentrations. Appropriate fitting functions are implemented to represent the correlations between resonant frequency and ion concentration, and discussion on the feasibility of the designed sensor for field deployment is presented