Characterization of materials using stripline resonators

Abstract

This thesis describes a method for using stripline resonators to characterize the electrical properties of materials used in the construction of planar geometry transmission lines and circuits. The method characterizes both dielectric and conductor materials. It can be used to find the relative dielectric constant and to separate the conductor and dielectric losses. The separation of the loss terms is achieved by fitting measurements of stripline losses to a well known model. This model identifies the loss terms separately based on variation of the losses with stripline dimensions.

This thesis presents the complete stripline resonator model used. The model has been incorporated into a computer simulation which predicts the resonator response. This simulation is useful in many ways, including the design of various resonators needed in experiments. Also presented are the results of an experiment which demonstrates the feasibility of this method when applied to real samples. These results show that this method works well for low loss materials.

Further development may produce 6 model which will allow this method to be used on higher loss materials. A similar theoretical derivation may be used to develop a model for using this method with other transmission line structures such as coaxial lines. This method is advantageous because it does not assume that material properties are independent of frequency and can be designed to produce results at a specific frequency. Stripline resonators are easily manufactured and a network analyzer is the only test equipment required. For these reasons, this method can be used to provide accurate results at a low cost.