Biaxial Material Characterization Utilizing A Focus
Beam System*
1st Nicholas A. O’Gorman*
EENG
Air Force Institute of Technology
Dayton, United States
nicholas.ogorman@afit.edu
Abstract—With the increase in complex materials used in
modern society and the ease that they can be manufactured
by implementing embedded structures, the need for methods to
determine properties of more complex materials is in growing
demand. This paper discusses the applications of a focus beam
system to extract properties of biaxial materials and compares
the results with other methods.
Index Terms—Antenna, Electromagnetics, Propagation, Mea-
surements.
I. I NTRODUCTION
With 3-d printers, materials can be produced with complex
properties using infused symmetry. The increased complexity
has led to a rise in unique and electromagnetically complex
materials that require the development of new techniques for
determining material properties.
One method for analyzing more complex materials is to cre-
ate a waveguide rectangular to waveguide square (WRWS) [1].
The WRWS method can analyze a cubic biaxial anisotropic
material. The method is limited in its usefulness by the
necessity of a cube-shaped sample that must fit inside the
WRWS. To remove the shape and size limitations, a focus
beam system (FBS) can be used.
The benefit of a working with a FBS is that the sample size
and shape are only limited by constant phase approximation
inside of the sample and the operating frequencies of the
antenna/collimating lenses used. The FBS, using collimating
lenses, allows for calculations to be done in the far-field,
simplifying calculations and making the data easier to process.
II. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
For this experiment, a biaxial sample was measured, using
a FBS, with an isotropic relative permeability of one and
possessing the following unknowns
F   permittivity and permeability of the material, i is the incoming
~ xx 0 0 wave angle, and is the internal wave angle (reference Figure
~ =  0 yy 0  (1)
0 0 zz
Material Measurement Laboratory ResearchWhen
U.S. Government work not protected by U.S. copyright
2nd Michael J. Havrilla
EENG
Air Force Institute of Technology
Dayton, United States
MIchael.Havrilla@afit.edu
Fig. 1. FBS with Biaxial Sample
Due to being unable to obtain a large enough biaxial sample
to fit in the FBS, an isotropic material with known material
properties was utilized as a support as shown in Figure 1.
First, the S parameters of only the isotropic material were
collected. Next the S parameters for both parallel and per-
pendicular field orientations for the pieces connected were
collected. The material was then rotated so that the Z-axis and
X-axis (X-axis being vertical and Z-axis being the direction
of propagation) were intercepted by the Electric field with a
parallel orientation (Figure 2). These four sets of S parameters
were then used to find the permittivity of the sample
III. SNELL’ S LAW
The angle of a wave traveling through a material is de-
termined by both the angle of incidence and the difference
between material parameters of the two substances. For this
experiment, the sample was surrounded by air, thus 0 and 0
can be assumed. Solving Snell’s law for the sample’s internal
angle leads to the following: where r and r are the relative
2)
 
sin(θi )
θ = arcsin √ (2)
r µr
Since the sample is a biaxial material, the material prop-
erties experienced by the wave becomes a combination of
 ↔ ↔ ↔ ↔ ↔ ↔ domain. The data now represents the fields that traveled
~⊥ ~k
µ0, 0 µ,  µ0, 0 directly between the two antennas [2].
K K
~x
K
~⊥
H Γ
~k
E B. Material Isolation
Γ
~k
E ~⊥ ~k
i E H ~z
K
Γ Γ
~k
E
The next step was to isolate the S parameters that represent
~k
K T ms
θ only the sample. The S21 sample measurement and the
~k
H θi ~k
K tm
i θ S21 through measurements are utilized. Since the material is
~k
HT rotated, the angle of rotations must be considered [3]. Using
~⊥
E θi
i θ ~⊥
E Figure 3, the following can be shown:
T
~⊥
K ~⊥
K
~⊥
H d
i x̂ ~⊥
H T
h= t = d ∗ tan(θ) (4)
ŷ
cos (θ)
k̂
ẑ leading to the following S21 relationships
z=0 z=d
sm A S −jk0 t B
Fig. 2. Biaxial Slab Y Axis Rotation
S21 = S21 S21 e S21 (5)

tm A jk0 h B
S21 = S21 e S21 (6)
S represents the sample, A represents the area on one side of
the sample, and B represents the area on the other side of the
sample. Combining these allows the material’s experimental S
parameter to be calculated.
sm
S exp S21 −jk0 dcos(θ)
S21 = S21 = tm e (7)
S21
V. THEORETICAL CALCULATION
For an incoming wave traveling in both the x and z direction,
the following two components are assumed (Figure 2) where
Kz , Kx , K represent the z, x, and total propagation constant.

~ Kz = Kcos(θ) Kx = Ksin(θ) (8)

~ E for the sample can be shown to equal the follow-
The W
Fig. 3. Rotated Sample [3]
ing:

 Kz Kz Kx
both the X and Z axis material properties using the following + ω 2 xx

~ µyy 0 yy
equation. ~E = K2 Kx2
W 0 − µxxz − + ω 2 yy 0

 µzz 
Kz Kx
0 − µKyyx + ω 2 xx
r = xx cos2 (θ) + zz sin2 (θ) (3) µyy
(9)
IV. CALIBRATION TECHNIQUE with representing the angular frequency.
Combining Equation 8 with Equation 9, the propagation
When utilizing the FBS, the S parameters found are based constant can be found for the perpendicular and parallel case.
on the spacing between the antennas and not the material that
was measured. The S parameters also contains noise from the
s
k ω 2 xx zz µyy
fields reflecting off the environment surrounding the setup. K =± (10)
cos (θ)zz + sin2 (θ)xx
2

A. Noise Reduction s
ω 2 yy µxx µyy
To remove noise from the collected data, the direct path Kk = ± (11)
between antennas needs to be isolated. To achieve this, the cos2 (θ)µzz + sin2 (θ)µxx
inverse Fourier transformation of the S parameters was found. The impedance for the biaxial material can then be repre-
The max value, representing the direct path, within the time sented as
domain is located and centered on zero. Using a sinc function,
the surrounding noise can be decreased. The resulting data is k k cos(θ)
then shifted back, and Fourier transformed into the frequency ηk = (12)
ωyy
 ωµxx
η⊥ = (13)
k ⊥ cos(θ)
Setting R equal to:

η k − η0
Rk = (14)
η k + η0
and P equal to
k ⊥
P k = e−jK dcos(θ)
P ⊥ = e−jk dcos(θ)
(15)
leads to the following theoretical reflection and transmission
S parameters for both the perpendicular and parallel cases.

thy thy P (1 − R2 )
S21 = S12 = (16)
1 − P 2 R2
Fig. 4. Resulting Parameters of Biaxial Sample
R(1 − P 2 )
thy thy
= =S11 S22 (17)
1 − P 2 R2
VI. TOTAL THEORETICAL CALCULATIONS
The experimental measurements taken include an isotropic
sample as well as an unknown biaxial one. This means that
the theoretical for both will need to be combined to match the
experimental data. This can be done by using A parameters.
The relationship between A and S parameters are as follows:
   
A11 A12 1 1 −S22
= (18)
A21 A22 S21 S11 S21 S12 − S11 S22
The A matrix directly relates input and output allowing
for side by side materials to be represented by A matrixes
multiplied together

[A]sys = [A]i [A]b (19)
i b
where [A] represents the isotropic sample, [A] represents
the biaxial sample, and [A]sys represents the entire system.
Next, the A matrix for the system can be transformed back
into S parameters.
   
S11 S12 1 A21 A11 A22 − A21 A12
= (20)
S21 S22 A11 1 −A12
thy
Once the total theoretical S21 is found, it can be subtracted
exp
from the S21 , set equal to zero, and solved using an iterative
method with zz as the unknown.
VII. RESULTS
The results for all three axial material parameters are
displayed in Figure 4. The measurement of interest relates
to zz , and possess an almost straight line with fluctuations
in the data. The error for zz can be seen in Figure 5.
The reason the solution does not exactly follow a straight
line was due to the inability to exactly line up the axes of
the antennas with the axes of the biaxial sample. Another
noticeable error in the solution is the increase in fluctuations as
the frequency increases. The fluctuations are due to operating
Fig. 5. Resulting Parameters of Biaxial Sample Error
above the designed frequencies of the collimating lenses in
the FBS, 11GHz [5]. The frequencies needed to be limited to
15-18GHz since lower frequencies would have some of the
electromagnetic waves pass through only the isotropic sample
instead of both, skewing the results. The fluctuations are much
more apparent in the Z-axis calculations when compared to the
x or y axes because any fluctuations are magnified during the
Z-axis calculation in Equation 10/11.
A similar biaxial sample was tested using a Waveguide-
Flange with results displayed in Figure 6 [4]. The error bars
corelating to accuracy of measurement devices used. Due to
the limitations of the Waveguide-Flange, the same sample
could not be used as it does not posses the ability to measure
zz. Comparing the two data sets, the two methods obtained
very similar results for zz confirming the accuracy of the
method derived in this paper.
VIII. CONCLUSION
The FBS displays the ability to accurately retrieve all three
unique diagonal material parameters for a biaxial sample.
Using this technique, it becomes possible to more accurately
 Fig. 6. Comparative Results from Waveguide-Flange [4].

know the properties of complex materials without limiting the

shape of the samples or having to use uniaxial materials. This
allows manufacturers and researchers to more accurately find
the properties of the materials they are working with to better
understand how they will affect a system.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The views expressed in his paper are those of the authors
and do not reflect the official policy or position of the U.S. Air
Force, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.
R EFERENCES
[1] A.G. Knisely, “Biaxial anisotropic material development and char-
acterization using rectangular to square waveguide,” Master’s thesis,
Department of the Air Force University.
[2] Joel P. Dunsmore. Handbook of microwave pomponent Measurements:
with Advanced VNA Techniques. John Wiley Sons, Chickester, West
Sussex, U.K, 2012.
[3] M.Havrilla, “Plane Wave Analysis for Bianisotropic Layered Media,”
Air Force Institute of Technology. Tech. Rep
[4] A.G. Knisely, “A Measurement Exploration of Additively Manufactured
Media,” Air Force Institute of Technology, Tech. Rep.
[5] Mark A. Finlayson. Users Guide: Theory and Operation of the GTRI
Focused Beam System. Georgia Institute of Technology