Properties of Nickel as Ring Resonators in the Microwave Frequency Range

Lance Haney

Mentor: Professor Michael Lanagan

 

Ring resonators deposited with nickel ink with screen printing techniques are to be compared with ring resonators that have silver ink deposited on them.  The purpose of using the ring resonator structure is that it gives accurate measurements of microwave losses using a rather simple method.  Once the screen printing is complete, the ring resonators are placed on a substrate of alumina (Al₂O₃).  Then the ring resonators are placed in a furnace where they will be heated to approximately three-fourths of their boiling points.  After this the rings are placed under a scanning electron microscope to ensure that the bonding is complete. 

Once the samples are determined to be acceptable, microwave analysis is performed on the ring resonators using the HP Network Analyzer 8510.  Utilizing the network analyzer the energy loss Q-factor is found and this is used to relate energy lost to energy stored.  With these Q values obtained, an effective dielectric constant (e_eff) as well as the attenuation constant (a) for nickel can then be determined.