Measurement Considerations for Accurately Characterizing the Constitutive Material Parameters

This paper discusses the measurement considerations for accurately characterizing the constitutive parameters of material with a focus on the use of vector network analyzer (VNA). The measurement setup for material characterization is first introduced, which involves a VNA, two coaxial cables, one set of waveguide calibration kit. VNAs from both Keysight and Rohde & Schwartz are employed in this study. Second, the uncertainty in the measured S-parameters at room temperature is collected. The sensitivity of the retrieval algorithm, NRW to the uncertainty error is subsequently demonstrated. Last, based on the above experiment and analysis, the considerations for material characterization at not only room temperature but also over a wide temperature range is discussed.