The electromagnetic behaviour of a material is given by its electric permittivity and its magnetic permeability. A great amount of materials do not posses magnetic properties and, therefore, only the knowledge of the electric permittivity is necessary. Applications as microwave heating, the design of communication systems or the development of radar or counter-radar systems require to know this physical property, which depends on the composition of the material and, in general, varies with the operation frequency and with the temperature.

The methodology of the measurement is based on the behaviour of an electromagnetic wave crossing a dielectric material. At GEM we have the equipment for measuring the electric permittivity of biological, plastic (polymer), ceramic and liquid materials, independently of the final application of the material, in a 0 – 20GHz frequency range. For this measurement, conventional techniques as those based on coaxial probes, waveguides, capacitors or resonant cavities, and new inverse characterization techniques developed by GEM are used.

Rodhe & Schwarz vector network analyzer