The Waveguide Cutoff Method

A New Method for Measuring the

Complex Permittivity of Liquid and
Semi-Solid Materials at Microwave
Frequencies
What is Permittivity?
Permittivity is a
measure of the
energy stored and
dissipated by a
material in an
electric field
= conductivity
= 2f

' ' ' c c c j =
e
o
c = ' '
Why is it Important?
Permittivity can be a measure of
several different parameters
Density
Temperature
Consistency
Viscosity
Purity

Specific Applications
Industrial Applications: Process
Monitoring
Polymers and thermoplastics
Steam
Chemical reactions
Mixing and Chemical Composition

Specific Applications
Biomedical and Food Applications
Water concentration and detection
Foodstuffs
Soils
Medicines
Fat and Meat quality
Cancer Detection
Blood Glucose Concentration

Methods of Permittivity
Measurement for Liquids
and Semi-Solids
Open-Ended Coaxial Probe technique
Cavity Perturbation Method
Transmission/Reflection Method
Coaxial Line Method
Waveguide Method
Time Domain Spectroscopy
Cavity Perturbation
How it works: Uses the Q-factor and the Frequency
shift in the resonant frequency to determine the
permittivity using Perturbation theory
Pros
Effective at measuring low-loss materials
Accurate as long as all of the assumptions are met
Cons
Sample size influences effectiveness and accuracy
Small samples only
Narrow Band/ Single Band
Must be precisely machined


Transmission/ Reflection
How it works: Uses S-Parameters from a network
analyzer and the relates the permittivity to the
reflection and transmission of energy through the
sample
Pros
Relatively Broadband (One Decade for waveguides up to
20GHz for coaxial)
Excellent for high-loss samples
Cons
Sample size must be corrected
May only use the TE
10
mode of propagation for a simple
mathematical model
Must be precisely machined

Transmission/Reflection
Reflection
Reflection
Transmission
Transmission
Time-Domain
Spectroscopy
How it works: uses a frequency domain signal and
the FFT to relate the transmission time through an
object to the complex permittivity.
Pros
Broadband, but limited by FFT and instrument (10Ghz)
Old method, no surprises
Cons
Very Expensive system
Large system complexity
System and software memory limitations for accuracy from
the FFT calculation

Open-Ended Coaxial
Probe Kit
How it works: Relates the reflection of
energy off of the sample to the complex
permittivity.
Pros
Commercially available, convenient
Broadband ( 200MHz 20GHz)
Cons
Some limitations by sample size, temperature
dependencies
Air gaps
The Waveguide-Cutoff
Method
A simple, broadband calibration
method for the measurement of
liquid and semi-solid materials

Semi-Solid
Powders
Gels
Colloids (salt water)
Mixtures (Pulp stock)
Malleable solids ( Silly Putty or meat)
Any solid whose dimensions are much
smaller than the smallest wavelength
in the measurement.
Advantages of the
Waveguide-Cutoff
Method
Broadband (20 GHz)
Calculations are limited to a non-linear
curve fit routine
Relatively inexpensive machined parts
for having such a large accuracy
Does not suffer from the same
restrictions or inaccuracies in
calibration as the Probe Kit
Waveguide-Cutoff
Minimum frequency within the rectangular
chamber that allows electromagnetic
energy to travel through it.
Governed by this equation:

2 2
2
1
|
.
|

\
|
+
|
.
|

\
|
=
b
n
a
m
f
c
t t
c t
f
c
is the cutoff frequency in Hertz ,
a is the width of the waveguide in m,
b is the height of the waveguide in
meters,
m is the number of -wavelength
variations of fields in the "a" direction,
n is number of -wavelength variations
of fields in the "b" direction,
is the permeability of the material inside
the waveguide
is the complex permittivity of the
material inside of the waveguide


Waveguide-Cutoff
Chamber
Cutoff!

Transmission of Water
through the Chamber
(S
21
)
Modes of Propagation
Moding occurs when the waveguide is
exited with energy which has an
integer multiple wavelength smaller
than the guide.
Modes of Propagation

The Chamber
Side View of Chamber
Excitation
VNA
Input
VNA
Output
The Relationship
All the other methods related some
measurable aspect to the permittivity,
using a model
This model relates the transmission of
the wave through the chamber and the
subsequent shift in cutoff frequency to
the complex permittivity
Model Derivation
Begin with the propagation vector k
z

This is the vector in the direction of wave
propagation by crossing the Electric field
and Magnetic field by the right hand rule.
Note that this equation contains the
chamber dimensions as well as the
permittivity
b
n
a
m
f k
z
2 2
2
2
) ( ) (
) 2 (
t t
c t

=
Model Derivation (cont.)
Now represent the transmission of energy
through the chamber in polar form.
Note the propagation vector and the
dependence on frequency and the mode m
Z is the position of the receiving antenna
This is literally the transmission S-parameter
from port 1 (input) to port 2 (output)

z f K j
z
e m f S

=
) (
12
) , (
Model Derivation (cont.)
So far, the energy may be calculated
for a single mode at a single frequency
However, we would like to have a
model which emulates the type of data
that can be attained: that which comes
from our Vector Network Analyzer
(VNA)

Model Derivation (cont.)
The VNA outputs the total
transmission through the chamber,
which includes the cutoff frequency,
and all of the existing modes added
together
All of these parameters must be
included in the model
Model Derivation (cont.)
The VNA outputs the logarithmic ratio of the
received energy to the amount of energy
excited by the input.
So the model must also include a form in
values of dB.
Begin by taking the natural log of the
transmission of the first few modes added
together.
)) 7 , ( ) 6 , ( ) 5 , ( ) 4 , ( ) 3 , ( ) 2 , ( ) 1 , ( ln( ) (
12 12 12 12 12 12 12
f S f S f S f S f S f S f S f X + + + =
Model Derivation (cont.)
Note that the even modes are
subtracted from the transmitted energy
and the odd modes are added
While the presence of the even modes
within the waveguide is not seen by
the receiving antenna, their existence
still removes energy from what will be
received.

Currently, the equation X(f) is simply a
logarithmic ratio, which is in units of
Nepers.
Now a conversion factor from Nepers
to DB is required to accurately predict
the output of the VNA
(
(

(
(

+ + +
=


L f K j L f K j L f K j
L f K j L f K j L f K j L f K j
z z z
z z z z
e e e
e e e e
f X
) 6 , ( ) 4 , ( ) 2 , (
) 7 , ( ) 5 , ( ) 3 , ( ) 1 , (
) (
ln 686 . 8 ) (
Model Results
Here are the uncalibrated results for water
Model Results
Now that we can accurately predict the
behavior of the transmission through
the chamber, we will need to calibrate
the model.
This is where Particle Swarm
Optimization and the non-linear curve
fit come in.
Particle Swarm
Optimization
PSO is a generic non-linear stochastic
method for curve-fitting in multiple
dimensions.
This method is used to calibrate the
instrument for the mode coefficients as
well as the electrical length of the
chamber
How PSO works
Imagine a surface,
where you are
looking for the
lowest point on the
curve
In this case, you
are solving for 3
variables, which
would be the 3D
midpoint on the
surface
How PSO works
Now imagine dropping a number of
marbles onto the surface.
Keep track of their positions and their
velocities as they roll around the
surface
Eventually, most of the marbles,
regardless of their initial positions, will
fall into the hole
Paradigm shift
Now, instead of a 3D surface, make
the solution space in n-dimensions.
Each dimension of the space
represents one of the parameters that
will be changed in the PSO
The particles still have positions and
velocities but they are much more
abstract
How PSO really works
Each particle represents one particular
solution to the problem within the
solution space
The particles move around this
space, and the movements are based
upon three things: their own personal
best solution, the global best solution
and a bit of randomness
Each particle has a velocity and position
and these are calculated for each iteration
of the PSO
The update equations for the velocity and
position are below:

Next_v[ ] = v[ ] + c
1
* rand * (pbest[ ] -
present[ ]) + c
2
* rand * (gbest[ ] - present[ ])
Next_present[ ] = present[ ] + v[ ]

Why do we care?
PSO was used in two different
calibrations and in the final curve fit to
find the model parameters for the
complex permittivity.
Total Calibration
Procedure
Calibrate for the Addition of different
Modes
Calibrate for the effective electrical
length of the chamber
Perform the Swarm several times to
determine the model parameters for
the complex permittivity
Mode Calibration
We want to make the
final transmission as
close to the actual data
as possible, so scaling
factors are added to
the final transmission
equation
Water, Air, ethanol and
methanol were used as
calibration materials
since they have known
permittivity values
Mode Calibration
(
(

(
(

+ + +
=


L f K j L f K j L f K j
L f K j L f K j L f K j L f K j
z z z
z z z z
e e e
e e e e
f X
) 6 , ( ) 4 , ( ) 2 , (
) 7 , ( ) 5 , ( ) 3 , ( ) 1 , (
) (
ln 686 . 8 ) (
(
(

(
(

+ + +
=


L f K j L f K j L f K j
L f K j L f K j L f K j L f K j
z z z
z z z z
e c e c e c
e c e c e c e c
f X
) 6 , (
7
) 4 , (
6
) 2 , (
5
) 7 , (
4
) 5 , (
3
) 3 , (
2
) 1 , ( 1
) (
ln 686 . 8 ) (
Electrical Length
Calibration
Temperature and humidity can change the
size of the chamber and the effective
electrical length of the chamber
Recall that the propagation vector k
z
,
depends upon the dimensions of the
chamber
A second calibration is used to determine
these values before any data is to be taken,
in an attempt to remove these effects.
This calibration utilizes temperature
controlled water and air and the previous
calibration to fine tune the model
The Debye Model of
Permittivity
Complex
permittivity changes
over frequency
This is sometimes
modeled using a
Debye Relaxation
Model
2 2
) 2 ( 1
) (
) ( '
t t
c c
c c
+

+ =
f
f
f i
f
0
2 2
2 ) 2 ( 1
2 ) (
) ( ' '
c t
o
t t
t t c c
c

+
+

=
f f
f
f
f i
Debye Relaxation Model
Debye Swarm Process
Each particle is given a randomly selected
starting position in the solution space
The solution is represented by the four
numbers of the Debye relaxation model
The swarm then changes these four values
to minimize the error between the model of
the chamber and the actual data from the
chamber
Debye Swarm Results
Preventative Measures
Sometimes a swarm will fall within a local
minimum instead of the global minimum
This can be solved through a method of
noise injection that Matt Trumbo calls
Explosion
After a certain number of iterations, the
particles will scatter at high velocity in a
random direction, but retain their personal
best solution
Statistical Methods
Most Swarm solutions are close to the
actual solution, but not exact.
To reduce random error, the swarm is run
for several iterations and averaged at the
end
The swarm also determines the average
and standard deviation for all the iterations
to attempt to remove any outliers where the
swarm has fallen into a false minimum
Results
All results are for substances at 20
degrees
All of the calibration substances had
known and recorded Debye
Parameters
Comparisons were made between this
system and an Open Coaxial-Line
Dielectric Probe Kit
Ethanol
Methanol
Air
Water
Oil
70% Isopropyl Alcohol
Acetone
Error Analysis
With , there is a 5% error between this
system and the reference instrument
With , however there is up to a 20%
maximum error between the Waveguide-
Cutoff method and the reference
*BUT* the uncertainty is only 3
That is, the large 20% error only occurred
for low-loss materials.
Conclusions
This system has similar accuracy and
uncertainty with that of the Open Coaxial-
Line Dielectric Probe Kit
However, this system does not share the
same problems with sample depth, and air
gaps between the sample and the probe
While sample size is larger, much of the
uncertainty of measurement is removed with
the Waveguide-Cutoff method.