The crystal structure and microwave (MW) dielectric properties of AHfO3 (A=Ba, Sr, and Ca) ceramics prepared by the solid‐state route have been investigated. X‐ray and electron diffraction show BaHfO3 to be an untilted cubic perovskite (a0a0a0, space group ), whereas SrHfO3 and CaHfO3 are both orthorhombically distorted perovskites (a−b+a−, space group Pnma). AHfO3 ceramics with a relative density ∼90% of the theoretical X‐ray density and microstructures consisting of randomly oriented equiaxed grains were prepared by firing at 1750°C for 6 h. Conventional transmission electron microscopy reveals the occurrence of long parallel ferroelastic domains in the subgrain microstructure of CaHfO3 and SrHfO3. At room temperature and MW frequencies, AHfO3 ceramics, where A=Ba, Sr, and Ca, have ɛr∼24.2, Q×fr∼14 250 GHz (at 8.9 GHz) and τf∼+111 ppm/K; ɛr∼23.5, Q×fr∼33 534 GHz (at 9.3 GHz), and τf∼−63 ppm/K; and ɛr∼21.4, Q×fr∼15 950 GHz (at 8.9 GHz), and τf∼−33 ppm/K, respectively. The ion polarizability for Hf4+ in a cubic perovskite environment is calculated to be 3.32 Å3, whereas in a noncubic environment it increases to 4.36–4.47 Å3. Finally, the dielectric properties of AHfO3 (A=Ba, Sr, and Ca) are compared with their titanate and zirconate counterparts.

Applications for low-temperature cofired ceramics (LTCC) and high-temperature cofired ceramics (HTCC) are advancing to higher frequencies. In order to design ceramic microsystems and electronic packages, the electrical properties of materials must be well characterized over a broad frequency range. In this study, the dielectric properties of commercial aluminum oxide (Al2O3) with different glass loadings are characterized using three different measurement techniques: the split-post cavity, terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy, and Fourier transform IR spectroscopy (FTIR). Specifically, the dielectric properties will be characterized from 10 GHz to IR frequencies. A split-post cavity was employed for determination of dielectric properties in the 10 GHz range. A broadband THz spectroscopy technique was used to characterize the specimens using measured time-domain transmission data. The dielectric constant and loss were extracted from the sample's frequency-domain transmission characteristics, providing data between 100 GHz and 2 THz. Additionally, FTIR was used to characterize the samples from ~33 to 3300 cm−1 (~1–100 THz). The measurements from the three techniques are compared, and dielectric constant and loss data will be presented for commercial and experimental ceramic systems from 10 GHz to IR frequencies.

Passive metamaterials suffer from narrow bandwidths and high losses due to limits imposed by causality. Actively loaded metamaterials on the other hand may be designed to overcome these limitations, with the caveat that stability may be difficult to ensure. In this letter, loops with active non-Foster loads, in which resistance, capacitance, and inductance are negative, are arranged in a periodic lattice to form an effective medium with either negative-Re μ or μ-near-zero magnetic properties over a broad range of frequencies. The stability and effective magnetic properties are examined analytically, as well as with numerical simulations. Furthermore, the tradeoffs between stability, bandwidth, and the lower bounds of the permeability are detailed.

At the Keck Smart Materials Integration Laboratory at Penn State University, low‐temperature co‐fired ceramic (LTCC) material systems have been used to fabricate a number of devices for a variety of applications. This article presents an overview of the integration of the concepts and materials that we have used to achieve miniaturization and unique device function. Examples of microwave filters, metamaterial antennas, and a dielectrophoretic cell sorter will be presented, with emphasis on device modeling and design, prototype construction methods, and test results.