Characterization of Dielectric Materials at WR-15 Band (50–75 GHz) Using VNA-Based Technique

This article presents an in-depth study of a new vector network analyzer (VNA)-based electromagnetic material measurement method relying on a commercially available material characterization kit (MCK). These MCKs provide effectively a guided free-space technique with less stringent requirement on alignment compared with conventional free-space techniques. Coupled with time gating, these MCKs employ a simple calibration, composed of reflect and thru standards only, prior to taking reflection and transmission S-parameter measurements. This MCK-based method complements other conventional measurement techniques, e.g., time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) and resonant cavity, allowing fast broadband dielectric material characterization over the millimeter- and submillimeter-wave frequency ranges. In this article, a WR-15 (50-75 GHz) MCK is utilized for the measurements of S-parameters for seven types of low-loss dielectric material. Their dielectric constant and loss tangent are extracted from S-parameters and are compared against literature values. A relatively good agreement is achieved. Moreover, an investigation into the uncertainties of the extracted dielectric constant and loss tangent is performed and reported.