Coaxial-Cage Transmission Line for Electromagnetic Parameters Estimation

We present the measurements performed with a custom coaxial-cage line designed to determine the complex dielectric permittivity of large samples, made of granular and/or liquid materials. The open structure of the cage facilitates the filling of the line, and allows the uniform compactness of the granular materials having large grain size. The electromagnetic parameters of the samples are retrieved using the line scattering coefficients ( S-parameters), measured with a vector network analyzer in the frequency range 1 MHz to 3 GHz. The measurements are carried out on water, ethanol, and glass beads using the Boughriet method, which, for non magnetic materials, optimizes the Nicolson-Ross-Weir algorithm. The results confirm that such a device accurately estimates the material complex permittivity in a wide frequency band. However, at very low frequencies and at frequencies multiple of the line half-wavelength resonances, the accuracy significantly reduces. In particular, the accuracy gets worse for materials with high permittivity and low losses. Nevertheless, for natural geo-materials, usually characterized by appreciable losses, the coaxial-cage line can effectively be used to accurately estimate the material electromagnetic properties in a wide frequency band.