Microwave dielectric properties of DNA based polymers between 10 and 30 GHz

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) based polymer thin-films were characterized at microwave frequencies for the first time. The dielectric properties of the film were extracted from comparison of the propagation constants of the co-planar waveguide (CPW) lines on bare MgO substrates and the DNA based films on MgO substrates. The insertion loss introduced by the DNA film is only 0.1 dB at 10 GHz and 0.5 dB at 30 GHz. The relative dielectric constant of the DNA based film averages to four at microwave frequencies, and the loss-tangent was below 0.1 up to 30 GHz.