Electrical characterization of non conducting materials using reflection based

Electrical Characterization
of Non-Conducting
Materials Using Reflection
Based Microwave
Technique
B Y
PALL AVI M AL AM E ( TP2 F1 2130 01)
GU ID E
D R . R AJ IV GU PTA

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the
requirements
of the degree of
Master of Engineering
by
Pallavi R. Malame
TP2F1213001
Supervisor:
Dr. RAJIV K. GUPTA
27-02-2015 TERNA COLLEGE : ME THESIS 2

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Dr. R. K. Gupta, HOD , EXTC Department,
Dr. Deven Shah, Principal.
Mr. Rajesh Harsh (Scientist F), HOD, Technology Innovation
Dept.(TID), SAMEER
Mr. Anil Kulkarni (Scientist F) ,HOD, Industrial Meteorological and
System Dept. (IMSD), SAMEER
Mr. Tapas K. Bhuiya (Scientist D), IMSD , SAMEER

Introduction
Microwave Reflectometry
Features of FDR
Motivation
Problem Statement
Objectives

Motivation
Society for Applied Microwave Electronics
Engineering & Research
Department of Electronics and
Information Technology
Under the aegis
of
Core Project : Moisture
Measurement System
Brix Measurement for
Sugar Industry
}
My Role
Problem Statement
• Need for accurate, rapid measurement system
which can be used for in-situ, online
measurements
• a research study is needed in the field of dielectric
spectroscopy
• Exploration of Reflection based method
• Exploration of Transmission/Reflection based
method
• Analysis of permittivity of wide variety of materials
(liquid-semi solids-solids) using Microwaves

Objectives
To electrically characterize variety of liquids like oils, sugar solution,
honey and milk using open ended coaxial cable technique (simulation as
well as experimentally) which is a reflection based microwave method.
To electrically characterize variety of solids like substrates and wood
using waveguide fixture method (simulation as well as experimentally)
which is based on Transmission/Reflection based method.
To explore other dielectric spectroscopy techniques
How did I achieve this
??

Microwave Reflectometry
Time domain
reflectometry - TDR
Frequency domain
reflectometry - FDR
• Less expensive • More accurate
• Advantage of
Calibration
FDR Features:
• gives high accuracy
• for homogeneous materials
• fast replacing laborious and time-
consuming physical and chemical
laboratory analytical methods
• applicable to materials and products of
agricultural origin
• non-destructive and rapid
measurements
• applications using automation
• Ideal for in-situ/in vivo online
measurement systems
• influence of electrical conductivity is
negligible
• penetration depth is much greater
• continuous remote monitoring
• insensitive to environmental factors
• enabling detection of even small
amounts of water
• Do not pollute the tested material

Electrical Characterization of Non-
Conducting Materials Using Reflection
Based Microwave
Technique
Electrical Characterization Non-Conducting Materials Reflection Based Microwave Technique
Figures Just for Illustration Purpose
Non Magnetic
materials Products
Measuring Electrical
Parameter only:
Dielectric
S11
Reflection
S21
Transmission
Er’
Dielectric
Constant
Er’’
Loss Factor
C Band ( 5.81 GHz)
Why 5.81??

Literature survey
• Polar dielectrics and modelling studies date back more than 70 years reported by
Debye in 1929.
• In the last 10-15 years, the concept of permittivity measurement has been extended
and applied to various agricultural, food, and biological problems
• 1945 - carrots at frequencies in the range of 18 kHz to 5 MHz by Dunlap and Makower.
• 1949 - potato, carrot, apple, and peach tissue from 1 to 40 MHz by Shaw and Galvin
• 1984 - tabulated the dielectric properties of selected vegetables and fruits at a
frequency range 0.1 to 10 GHz by tran et al.
• 1980 - moisture content on the dielectric properties of granular solids at 9.4 GHz over
a wide range of temperature and moisture contents by M.A. Stuchly, and S.S. Stuchly
• Several techniques to measure the dielectric properties of agri-food materials are
described in 1) Handbook of Microwave Measurements by M. Sucher and J. Fox
2) Industrial Microwave Heating by A.C. Metaxas and R. Meredith
• 1980 -The dielectric properties of food materials in the microwave region can be
determined by several methods using different microwave measuring sensors [22-23]
Microwave aquametry by A.W. Kraszewski.
• 1989 - Nyfors and Vainikainen [24] has reported four groups of measurement
methods, namely, lumped circuit, resonator, transmission line, and free-space
methods.

Open ended Coaxial Method
• 1980 - Open ended coaxial probe method has been reported by Stuchly and Stuchly
• 1989 - For liquid and semi-solid materials, including biological and food materials, open-
ended coaxial-line probes have been used for broadband permittivity measurements.
Grant et al and Blackham et al.
• For liquid and semi-solid materials, including biological and food materials, open-ended
coaxial-line probes have been used for broadband permittivity measurements [25-26].
• A similar technique is used for permittivity measurements on fresh fruits and vegetables
by Nelson.
Oils
• 2008 -Dielectric properties of vegetable oils and fatty acids in low frequencies (0.1-1
MHz) are studied by Lizhi et al.
• 2010 - On the basis of this research it is possible to detect whether olive oil has been
adulterated with cheaper vegetable oil [29].
• 2010 - Latest studies based on TDR have been reported by Piuzzi et al [30]
Milk
Use of open ended coaxial probe technique for dielectric property measurement of
milk is mentioned in Advanced Dairy Chemistry by McSweeney

• 1974 - Mudgett et.al.[32] has observed dielectric properties of skim milk over the
temperature range 25-55oC.
• 2006 - Nunes et al. [33] has examined the complex dielectric permittivity of UHT milk in a
frequency range 1-20 GHz.
• 1992 & 2010 - Latest studies are reported by Kudra et al [34] and W Guo et al [35].
Honey
• 2010 - Study of honey using open ended coaxial cable has been reported by W Guo et al.
Dielectric spectroscopy is used for determining difference between different honey and
sucrose and water content of honey [36-37].
Waveguide Fixture
• Microwave measurement systems to determine the dielectric properties of grain, Early
efforts to characterize the dielectric properties of materials using transmission/reflection
based method which are open resonant structures are fabricated at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology [11, 38].
• 1973,1983,1984 - Coaxial-line and rectangular wave-guide sample holders are used with
various mid, and fruit and vegetable tissue samples at frequencies from 1 to 22 GHz [8,39-
41].
• 1983 -The sample holders are also used to measure dielectric properties of pulverized coal
and mineral samples [40].
• 1970 - Dielectric properties of grain samples are measured using a precision bridge over
audio frequencies from 250 Hz to 20 kHz with sample holders confined in a coaxial sample
holder and reported in [42].

Permittivity and Dielectric
Mechanism
"'
0
rrr
j


 
'
"
tan
r
r


  r
'
r
''
r
Complex
Relative
Permittivity
Dielectric
Constant
Loss
Factor
Loss
Tangent
Complex Permittivity: Permittivity describes
the interaction of a material with an electric
field.
Dielectric Constant :It is a measure of how
much energy from an external field is stored
in a material.
Loss Factor: It is a measure of how dissipative
or lossy a material is to an external field.
Loss Tangent: The loss tangent or tan δ is
defined as the ratio of the imaginary part of
the dielectric constant to the real part.

Dielectric Theory
"'
rrr j "'
rrr j 
Electric Magnetic
Permittivity Permeability
FieldsFields
STORAGE
LOSS
MUT
STORAGE
LOSS
Non Magnetic Material!
1

Interaction of Medium with
EM Waves

Dielectric Mechanism
Random Motion of
water molecules
Orientation in Electromagnetic Field

Frequency response of
Dielectric Mechanisms
Microwave
frequency
region
} Microwave
frequency
Loses are
introduced at
low frequency
Parameters contributing to
permittivity
Conduction: ionic
Dipolar relaxation
Atomic polarization
Electronic polarization
Return

Relaxation time
1
1
10
100
10 100
Water at 20o C
f,
GHz
most energy is lost at 1/t
'
r
"
r
Cole Cole Plot

Measurement Techniques
Parallel Plate Low Frequency
Best for thin flat sheets
Coaxial Probe Broadband
Best for liquids, semi-solids
Transmission Line Broadband
Best for machine-able solids
Transmission Free
Space
Broadband, mm-wave
Non-contacting
Resonant Cavity Single frequency
High accuracy, Best for low
loss, or very thin samples

Vector Network Analyzer
N5221A PNA.
Image Courtesy : Agilent Technologies

Reflection based Electrical
Characterization of Non-
Conducting Materials.
Sensor Probe, waveguide, patch
antenna
Measured parameter S11 reflection coefficient
Features:
Best for lossy MUTs, liquids or semi-solids.
 Broadband.
 Convenient and non-destructive.
 Require no machining of the sample, easy sample
preparation, after
calibration, the dielectric properties of a large number of
samples can be
routinely measured in a short time.
 Measurement can be performed in a temperature controlled
environment.

Transmission/Reflection based
Electrical Characterization of
Non-Conducting Materials.
Sensor waveguide
Measured parameter S11 and S21
Features:
• Accuracy
• Best for solid materials.

Open Ended Coaxial
Probe Technique
Sample thickness
d

Practical View
Calibration and Measurement
Technique
• Agilent Technologies N5221A PNA network
analyser
• Agilent Technologies 85070E open ended coaxial-
line probe
• 85070E software
• reflection coefficient was measured
• PNA Port OSL calibration
• Probe Calibration open, short and deionised
water
• Temperature maintained at 250C
• Ecal Module

Oils
Result And Discussion
Sample oils:
50 ml coconut oil
50ml groundnut oil
50ml sunflower

ε’
Low Frequency
ε"

Brix
Sample: 100g Water and
Sugar Solution

Sugar content ε’ ε"σ : conductivity

Milk

Milk Adulteration Detection
Sample: Fresh untreated cow’s milk
temperature is maintained at 250C
adulterants used are:
water at room temperature, sugar, wheat flour
as starch and sodium bi carbonate
Image Courtesy: Times of India (6/3/14)

ε’’
ε’
Water
Water
ε’’
Water
Dielectric Response

Sugar
ε’

ε’
ε’’

Honey
A sample of honey from
an apiary belonging to
apis indica species of
honeybee
Adulterants:
distilled water and
corn syrup.

ε’
Water
ε’’
Water

ε’
cornsyrup
ε’’
cornsyrup

Rectangular Waveguide as
Fixture: Simulation in HFSS

S11 vs Frequency
S11= -19.927 at 5.81GHz

Permittivity 1
27-02-2015 TERNA COLLEGE : ME THESIS 39Video

Permittivity 10
27-02-2015 TERNA COLLEGE : ME THESIS 40Video

SIMULATION RESULTS

Experimental Setup

Coax to Waveguide
Adaptor

SAMPLE HOLDER AND
SAMPLE

85071E Software

Waveguide Fixture S11 S21
Coax to waveguide adapter 1 -21.79dB -
Coax to waveguide adapter 2 -25.85dB -
Combined waveguide -24.85dB -0.94dB
Material
Teflon 2.1 2.53
UHM 2.4 2.66
Wood 1.2-5 5.43
Wet-Wood - 12.58

Frequency 5.71GHz
0.2
0.1

Conclusion
The experimental results on oil and brix content are close to the values
specified in Literature and Theory
Open ended coaxial technique can be utilised for oil adulteration
detection-More experimentation with TDR required
The Technique can satisfactorily used in Sugar Industries for measurement
of brix due to wide variation in S11 data
Milk and Honey adulteration detection methods are proved reliable and
accurate
Transmission/Reflection based method using software 85071E gives a very
accurate
Result compared to reflection based method. The fabricated waveguide
design proves very useful in wood, paper and pulp industries for wood
moisture measurement for instant results

Scope for Future Work
Dielectric spectroscopy of oil
Investigations for fat content measurement
Cheese Industry
Instead of Rectangular waveguide a circular waveguide can be used.
More materials like metamaterials can be studied for their dielectric
and magnetic property
Different sensors including Patch antennas ,horn antennas etc. can be
explored.

References
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physics”, Int. Agrophys., pp. 187-197, 2012.
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[17] M.A. Stuchly, and S.S. Stuchly, “Dielectric properties of biological substances –
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