United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority

Graham N Plested

Michael A Flemming

A method of characterizing a material uses an element in which microwaves can propagate and can resonate, such as a weakly-coupled isolated microstrip device or a microwave cavity, arranged so that fringing fields from the element interact with the material. Microwaves are coupled into the element at a frequency near a resonance, and a modulating signal is applied so as to modulate the response of the element. Measurements of both the mean response and the modulation of the response enable the dielectric constant and dielectric loss of the material to be determined. Modulation may be applied to the frequency of the microwaves, or to the electrical parameters of the element.

Material characterization

A microwave probe for determining properties of a fluid medium, and particularly for separating measuring dielectric constant and dielectric loss, comprises an insulating substrate metallized on one face, an electrically isolated, ring-shaped, resonant element defined on the opposite face, and shielded means to couple microwaves into and from the element such that the element can undergo a resonance. The resonant frequency depends on the dielectric constant of an adjacent medium, while the Q-factor of the resonance depends on the dielectric loss of the medium. In one method of operation microwaves are coupled into the element to force an oscillation, and the driving frquency is varied to obtain a resonance.

Microwave probe

An apparatus and a method are provided for measuring the thickness (d) of a thin layer (12) of a non-metallic material on the surface of another medium (14). A transmitter (16) causes a beam of microwaves to be incident on the exposed surface (15) at an angle of incidence greater than 30.degree., and at least one fixed detector (18) monitors a component of the reflected microwave beam polarized in an appropriate plane. In one case the angle of incidence is equal to the Brewster angle (B) for the lower medium, which is water, and the detector monitors the amplitude of the vertically plane polarized component, which is a rapidly varying function of the thickness. In another case the angle of incidence is about 45.degree., and the monitored component is cross-polarized relative to the incident beam. The apparatus is suitable for detecting layers less than 1 mm thick of pollutants such as oil or kerosene on water before such water is discharged into the environment.

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Didcot, United Kingdom

Graham N Plested