Scalar Dielectric Constant Extraction of Planar Materials from Reflection Measurements

Industrial plastics are widely used in warfare electromechanical systems to protect the internal electronic circuitry from environmental effects. Depending the purpose of the warfare system, the surface interaction with electromagnetic fields play a key role and the main parameter that determines reflection and the shielding of the electromagnetic fields from material surface is the dielectric constant of the material itself. In this paper, extraction of scalar dielectric constant from electromagnetic reflection measurement using an alternative two standard calibration technique in a low cost aluminum compact chamber is obtained. Calibration technique uses time domain measurements and converts them to frequency domain. Especially in R&D phase of electromechanical integration of warfare systems, this technique is quite useful where the exact values of dielectric constants of planar industrial plastics are not required. Obtained reflection coefficient error level is 0.67dB for 10mm while it reaches 1.62dB for 40mm thickness materials. It is shown that calculated values are in good agreement with the reference measurement method performed by precision airline setup Agilent 85050C.