A study on measurement of dielectric constant by free space transmission method at C band

In this paper, we looked at the C band used by wireless local area networks (LANs) and conducted a basic study of methods for measuring the complex permittivity by a free space transmission method using horn antennas. In the study, we quantitatively examined the significant effect of the errors produced by widening the directivity of the horn antenna on the size of the measurement sample and distance between the antenna and the sample of, for example, acrylic board. We compared these measurement results to those of the resonator method and verified excellent agreement. We also verified excellent agreement between measurements of the complex permittivity of plasterboard building material as the sample and published measurements. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn Pt 1, 87(10): 18–25, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ecja.10191