Improved sensitivity in coaxial line probes using materials with negative permittivity

The sensitivity of coaxial line probes is improved using epsiv-negative materials. Phase shift is improved by 11 times with the optimum SNG thickness and standoff distance combination. When the coaxial line size is increased, evanescent fields with smaller decay constants are emanated. Therefore the optimum SNG thickness is increased when the coaxial line radius is increased. The SNG layer also increases the image quality. Smaller probes produces better images.