Q‐Factor Measurement

This paper reports the development of a stand-alone and portable instrument designed to measure the complex permittivity of dielectric materials at microwave frequencies. The equipment consists of an in-house singleport vectorial reflectometer and a resonant coaxial bi-reentrant microwave cavity where the material under test is placed inside a Pyrex vial, making the device appropriate for measuring liquids, semi-solids, powders and granular materials. The relation between the dielectric properties of the involved materials and the cavity resonance has been solved by numerical methods based on mode-matching and circuit analysis. In order to increase the measurement range, so that low to high loss materials can be characterized in the same cavity, the effect of the coupling network is de-embedded from the resonance measurements. The performance of the newly devised instrument is evaluated by error/uncertainty analysis and comparative studies with other wellestablished instruments and methods. Errors lower than 2% in the dielectric constant, and 5% in the loss factor, are found. This simple, portable, affordable and robust device could help non-specialized personnel to accurately measure dielectric properties of materials used in a wide range of microwave applications.

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Q‐Factor Measurement

Abstract: The sections in this article are Definitions General Sources of Errors in Q Measurement Traditional Methods of Q Measurement Modern Measurement Techniques Acknowledgement

Cited by 2 publications

References 46 publications

A re-entrant resonator for the measurement of phase boundaries: dew points for {0.4026CH4+0.5974C3H8}

A re-entrant resonator for the measurement of phase boundaries: dew points for {0.4026CH4+0.5974C3H8}

A New Stand-Alone Microwave Instrument for Measuring the Complex Permittivity of Materials at Microwave Frequencies

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