Electrical characterization of some materials in the X-band

Abstract

Three classes of materials, i.e. dielectric, semiconducting and conducting materials are considered, where some of their electrical properties are measured at microwave frequencies, i.e. in the X-band (8 to 12 GHz). These include the insertion loss, return loss, shielding effectiveness and the equivalent input impedance. Comparison between these different parameters is made using a set of curves as a function of frequency. The results obtained indicate virtually no unusual behaviour. A maximum shielding efficiency of about 34 dB is found for GaAs limit and lower values are found for the silicon, flexible carbon and dielectric materials. The equivalent input impedance was found to be roughly constant over the X-band for the dielectric and conducting materials while it exhibits a high dependence on frequency for semi-conducting material oscillating between inductive and capacitive.