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An alternative method for the measurement of the microwave temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (τf)

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In this paper an alternative method for the measurement of the temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (τf), is presented. The traditional method (based on the Courtney method) present some limitations of measuring the values of τf, for samples with high dielectric loss due to their inability to observe clearly the TE011 mode. The alternative experimental setup, to measure the τf value, is based on the variation of the temperature of the dominant mode of a dielectric resonator antenna. The method is quite compatible with the measurement of τf, based on the Courtney method. It presents the advantage that it is less sensitive to the sample loss. In the studied samples, with loss higher than 10−2, the τf were obtained. Samples of known τf were measured in both methods, using the configuration proposed by Courtney and the present study. The alumina (Al2O3) and calcium titanate (CaTiO3) were selected because they have well known values of τf and have low dielectric losses, the bismuth niobate and titanium (Bi3NbTiO9) was chosen because it is not possible to measure its τf by the traditional method due to its high dielectric loss. The obtained results, by measuring, the τf value of CaTiO3 and Al2O3, in this proposed method, present excellent agreement when compared to the traditional Courtney, transmission method. It was also very efficient for measurements of the τf value, of high dielectric loss materials (>10−2), as for the bismuth and titanium niobate (Bi3NbTiO9). The analysis of the temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (τf) in dielectric resonators is an important property for the development of electronic devices. This is because the τf is a fundamental parameter, for the production of new components like filters, oscillators and antennas, with high thermal stability.
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... The dielectric properties in the microwave region were measured using the Hakki-Coleman method by employing the vector network analyzer in Agilent model N5230C. The Silva-Fernandes-Sombra method [27] was employed to obtain the temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (τ f ) for each of the systems evaluated. ...
... Another important parameter for microwave dielectric ceramics is the temperature coefficient of the resonant frequency (τ f ) because this parameter indicates the stability of the ceramic material when subjected to temperature variation. τ f was obtained using the Silva-Fernandes-Sombra method [27]. Table 2 shows that the τ f values were negative for the composites because ZNO and ZTNO have negative τ f values (TiO 2 reacted completely with ZNO to form ZTNO, as shown by the X-ray diffraction results) [24,28]. ...
... Impedance spectroscopy was used to analyze the dielectric properties of the material in the radiofrequency range, where data were obtained through an impedance analyzer (model Solartron 1260) as a function of frequency (1 Hz-1 MHz) in the temperature range of 380-460 • C. Evaluation of the dielectric properties in the Microwave region (MW) was performed by Hakki-Coleman method using the network analyzer of Agilent model N5230A. To determine the temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (τ f ) and so evaluate the thermal stability of materials the Silva-Fernandes-Sombra (SFS) method [15] was employed. The refinement parameters obtained for the synthesized MNO sample were R WP = 5.13 %; χ 2 = 2.05; and R Bragg = 10.07 %, demonstrating that the refinement carried out is adequate. ...
... The thermal stability of the material was determined using the SFS method, 32,33 in which the DRA is fed laterally by an SMA probe coupled to a ceramic oven. The τ f shows the evolution of the resonance frequency with temperature variation and the mode used was HE 11δ , which is easy to detect, even for materials. ...
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... The values of τ f were calculated over a temperature range from 30 to 80 °C by Silva-Fernandes-Sombra (SFS) method [22]. The dielectric resonator antennas (DRA) measurements were also performed using an Agilent Network Analyzer, Model PNA N5230A. ...
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