NEW WAVEGUIDE METHOD FOR DIELECTRIC PARAMETER MEASUREMENT

Abstract

Perfect knowledge of dielectric parameters is necessary for its application in various devices. In spite of the whole range of measurement techniques, their practical implementation in the microwave frequency band runs into some difficulties. This article describes a new method for nonmagnetic dielectrics permittivity and loss tangent measurement in the microwave frequency band. A dielectric specimen slab is placed in the short-circuited waveguide section normal to its axis and fills the whole cross-section of the waveguide at approximately quarter wavelength from its short-circuited endpoint. By means of the vector network analyzer the waveguide section reflection factor is measured. Objective function is de-termined as difference between calculated and measured module and phase of the reflection factor. Specific code for ob-jective function calculation and its minimization is worked out. Minimization of this function by varying dielectric parameters makes it possible to find real values of these parameters. The method needs no de-embedding and can be used with non-calibrated waveguide-to-coax transitions. Also it is less sensitive to the noise component of reflected signal. The testing results show that new method’s error does not exceed 0.2 % for relative permittivity and 1% for dielectric loss tangent.