Microwave Measurements

Calvin Leiter

Mentor: Michael Langan

 

            Indirect dielectric loss measurements will be taken for materials in the form of temperature.  Samples will include several commercially available RF absorbers and some in-house prepared samples.  The prepared samples (thick films) will be prepared by the student.  Measurements will be conducted using an infrared thermometer and a 600 Watt microwave oven.  The purpose of this project is to obtain data concerning the suitability of certain materials for heating applications as they relate to fluorescence detection of protein assays.

The dielectric properties of tissue will also be examined with the use of an HP 8510 vector network analyzer.  Student will be responsible for experimental and fixture design, data collection and analysis.  The focus of this experiment will be to calculate the loss tangent and dielectric constant of tissue.  The purpose of these experiments is to obtain preliminary data on tissue for future work related to the use of microwaves for cancer detection.