Design of Multilayered Epsilon-Near-Zero Microwave Planar Sensor for Testing of Dispersive Materials

Abstract

A novel planar multilayered epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) tunnel sensor based on fully laminated surface integrated waveguide (SIW) technology is proposed for the microwave measurement of dispersive materials. The proposed sensor is designed and optimized using parametric analysis to obtain the multilayered ENZ tunnel dimensions. It is observed that the width of the upper tunnel of the designed two-tunnel sensor should be at least half of the SIW width of the actual SIW structure for the multiband operation. The complex permittivity measurement using the proposed sensor is possible at two frequencies with a single set of measurement data. The proposed method is based on perturbation of the squeezed electric field having constant magnitude and high intensity inside the multilayered ENZ tunnel, which eventually increases the sensitivity of the proposed sensor. The sensitivity and accuracy of the proposed sensor are tested using both the simulated and the experimented data. It is found that the proposed sensor is highly sensitive, and typically demonstrates 6% error under ideal conditions, thus making it a good candidate for the microwave measurement of dispersive materials.Index Terms-Cavity perturbation methods, dispersive materials, epsilon-near-zero (ENZ), microwave sensors, permittivity measurement, substrate integrated waveguide (SIW). 0018-9480

Novel MNZ-type microwave sensor for testing magnetodielectric materials

“…It can be easily shown that an air-filled waveguide inherently possesses an ENZ effect near the cut-off frequency of the TE 10 mode. The greater strength of the electric field in the metallic waveguide is quite useful and serves the purpose of dielectric sensing at microwave frequencies without filling the ENZ channel of the parallel plate waveguide with an artificial inclusion, as in SRRs 10,18 .…”

“…Since the magnitude of H x is minimal (less than − 24 dB, as compared with the input amplitude of H z ), the effect of the nonuniform H x can be ruled out. In the recent past, intense uniform electric fields with almost zero magnetic fields at x = w /2 have been effectively used for the dielectric sensing of materials placed in the ENZ channel 10 , 18 .…”

“…A higher electromagnetic field provides better sensitivity in the microwave characterization of the material. An example of a highly sensitive miniature resonator is a substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) sensor with an epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) channel 10 . The ENZ channel squeezes and confines the electric field into a comparatively smaller volume, which increases its intensity in the sensing area for dielectric characterization.…”

Adulteration detection in petroleum products using directly loaded coupled‐line‐based metamaterial‐inspired submersible microwave sensor

“…Microwave non-destructive measurement using the resonant sensors for industrial and biological applications has been practised for many years [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. The sensor design using the planar resonant structures has become quite fascinating in recent times due to their low-profile design and ease of integration with other planar structures.…”

Metamaterial inspired miniaturized SIW resonator for sensor applications

“…Its resonant frequency is determined by the permittivity of the loaded material (substrate) and the dimensions of the cavity. To reduce the size of SIW cavities, the epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) tunneling phenomenon [6], [7] can be used. The resonant frequency of ENZ tunneling is just as the cutoff frequency of the TE10 mode of the waveguide, which means that the related operating frequency is independent of the length of the waveguide.…”