Characterization of Liquid Dielectric Solution with 3D Printed Broadband Coaxial Transmission Line

Abstract

This work presents the development of a methodology and software interface for the measurement of liquid dielectric constant based on the equivalent capacitance model. This work also presents the design and development of a novel coaxial probe with a 3D-printed transmission environment. The proposed coaxial probe is capable of working in the broadband frequency range from 500 MHz to 8.5 GHz. This probe, along with the developed software, leads to an indigenous solution for measuring the real-time electromagnetic parameters (i.e., permittivity, conductivity, and loss tangent) of liquids in a broad band frequency range. The complete setup is tested with the measurements of dielectric values of liquid and then compared and reported with the outcome of a commercially available software package and the actual target data. The measured results are comparable with the values obtained from commercial software as well as with the target data. Further, the measurement uncertainty was estimated to find out the tolerance limit, which is as per the IEC/IEEE 62209–1528:2020 standard (below ± 5%). This work is performed for the measurement and evaluation of dielectric properties in the frequency range of mobile communication, which includes 2G, 3G, 4G, and VoLTE.