8.7.

COAXIAL LINES
Coaxial lines have inner and outer conductors and may have circular, elliptical, or square cross sections. This short discussion
will address cylindrical coaxial lines such as that drawn in Fig. 8.19.

Figure 8.19 Coaxial line geometry and parameters.

The electromagnetic propagation in coaxial line is transverse electromagnetic (TEM) fields. Unlike transverse electric (TE) or
transverse magnetic (TM) waveguide modes, there is no lower cutoff wavelength. The coaxial electric field is radial and
maintained from the center conductor (radius ri) to outer conductor at r0. The magnetic field is directed tangential to the
conductors (circumferential) and both fields are perpendicular to the direction of propagation (Fig. 8.19). A sample under test
has disk/donut shape, with thickness t, and is placed in the line so as to fill the region between inner and outer conductor.

The electric and magnetic fields in the coaxial line are

(8.9)

where is the unit azimuthal vector.

Since TEM propagation applies, equations relating constitutive parameters to reflection and transmission are equivalent to the
Chap. 4 analysis for a free space plane wave at normal incidence on a material slab. Absent cutoff frequency, 1.85-, 3.5-, 7-,
14-mm or larger size coaxial line can, in principle, be used to make even "DC" measurements of constitutive parameters. The
upper limit on frequency is imposed by multi-moding (often a TE mode). An approximate equation for that upper frequency
limit is implied by the boundary condition on circumferential electric field. That is, the average circumference between inner
and outer conductor should be equal to one electromagnetic wavelength at the next higher mode, .
This equation suggests a 14-mm line is restricted to frequencies below 10 GHz and 7-mm coaxial airline to measurements
below 18 GHz. Modern network analyzers are equipped to operate above 100 GHz but the coaxial line is 1.85 mm. Preparing
samples for 1.85-mm line would be very difficult and sample homogeneity critical.

At high frequencies, the probability becomes very large that partially filled line or line imperfections will excite higher order
modes near the sample. Sample index of refraction should be incorporated when planning a measurement since the upper
most frequency scales inversely with index.

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Note that when referring to sample preparation the word fill should be underlined for emphasis. Although samples for
waveguide are tenths of a wavelength in cross-sectional dimension, the lack of cutoff allows coaxial measurements at
microscopic scales compared to wavelength. A coaxial measurement at 0.001 GHz would use a sample approximately 10−5 of
a wavelength in radial direction or an areal scale <10−5 λ2. Thus, if measured coaxial permittivity and permeability data are to
be used for applications (e.g., EMI, EM windows, EM laminates, filters, or resonator specifications) the previously discussed
limitation on test sample homogeneity and composition becomes most severe. An effective constitutive parameter
measurement of a metamaterial sample, with periodicity of 0.1 wavelength at 4 GHz (7.49 mm), has no meaning for 7-mm
airline samples whose filled radial dimension is about 4 mm. The measurement could not encompass one period of the
metamaterial.

The metamaterial example may be an extreme. However, consider that some fabric-polymer composites have wave
periodicities also on the order of 2 to 5 mm. In later sections and chapters, similar problems are discussed when measuring
artificial dielectrics and magnetic materials, even when the basic correlation length of particulates in composite is only tens of
micrometers.

Waveguide and coaxial line test fixtures must have adapters that allow direct connection to the S-parameter ports of a
network analyzer. The adapters are impedance matched to reduce spurious reflections which would require additional
calibration in subtraction from measurements of materials. Most often the adapters are designed to match to the 50-Ω
impedance characteristic of the S 11, S 12, S 21, and S 22 S-parameter analyzer connectors [11].

A waveguide adapter is often complex since it adapts the rectangular waveguide to the cylindrical geometry of the analyzer
connector. However, the airline coaxial test fixtures interface directly to the S-parameter test set of the network analyzer. If
the experimenter is only interested in frequencies below a few gigahertz, one might solve the electromagnetic size-scale
problem for composites in coaxial line by making a large diameter coaxial line fixture. This would decrease the wavelength
and area scales for the composite. However, the diameters of inner and outer conductors are limited to size ratios that
maintain an acceptable impedance match of test fixture and network analyzer test port. Further the adapter must maintain
that impedance as it changes size from the small diameter coaxial S-parameter port (typically 7 mm or smaller) to the larger
diameter of a test fixture. Therefore, the inner and outer diameter of the coaxial conductors must be chosen such that the line
impedance of taper and line are very close to 50 Ω. The impedance of the line is given by

(8.10)

where εr,μr are relative constitutive parameters of the material filling between conductors.

In the case of the air-filled lines, one finds that the ratio of outer conductor inside radius, r0, to inner conductor outer radius, ri,
must have a numerical value of 2.3009 to maintain a 50-Ω impedance. Figures 8.20 and 8.21 show a typical expansion where
the larger test section limits measurements to frequencies below 2 GHz.

Figure 8.20 An expanded coaxial fixture with typical cylindrical disk sample. The reflection and
transmission fixture is approximately 6 ft in length and expands from 0.141- to 3.5-in. diameters
while maintaining a 50-Ω match.

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 Figure 8.21 Left side of Fig. 8.20, expanded to show coaxial interface from 0.141- to 3.5-in. diameter
coaxial line. A test sample and ruler are shown for comparison.

A typical coaxial line test configuration is shown in Fig. 8.22. Calibration procedures for coaxial line are identical to those for
waveguide [23] but calibration fixtures (short, offset short, and loads) and hardware for the two are different. Calibrations may
include short circuits, matched loads (either fixed or sliding), short circuits that are offset by specific line lengths, and sections
of waveguide or coaxial line that are of known electrical length and attenuation per unit length. An air-filled section of
rectangular waveguide and/or coaxial lines serves as sample holders for material measurements [13]. A photo of an air-filled
7-mm coaxial line, short circuit, fixed load, and a disk-shaped sample is shown in Fig. 8.23.

Figure 8.22 Coaxial line measurement configuration.

Figure 8.23 Coaxial airline, short circuit, and fixed load (upper right respectively) and disk shaped
sample (lower right). The ruler is for scale; note the small size of the sample.

Examples of measured data follow. Figure 8.24 shows data from a measurement of a ceramic which has negligible frequency
dispersion. Over three decades of frequency the imaginary permittivity is below 0.4 and loss tangent of the material remains
below 0.02. Figure 8.25 shows a ferrite material with magnetic frequency dispersions. This data is from a commercial NiZn
ferrite and is typical of many materials with magnetic loss. The ferrite is a ceramic; thus, it has a very low electrical
conductivity and the measured permittivity shows minimal dispersion over the two decades of frequency that is measured.
The permeability resonance is below 0.1 GHz and thus the dispersion is of a f−a type, typical of a magnetic material above the
resonant frequency.

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 Figure 8.24 Coaxial measurements of a Lead-oxide glass sample.

Figure 8.25 Coaxial permittivity and permeability measurements of a commercial NiZn ferrite.

In summary, it is most important that the experimenter be attentive to size scales in a material under test, especially for
composites. Though the coaxial line offers an unmatched measurement bandwidth, useful samples must be isotropic and
homogeneous at very small size scale. This is especially true in measuring composites containing components that are much
above a few micrometers in size. Coaxial line should be avoided when measuring most metamaterials. Lastly, note that the
radial directed electric field and circumferential magnetic field orientation essentially averages over any planar anisotropy
that a sample might possess. Only limited types of tensor properties in magnetic materials can be extracted using coaxial
line. For example, the experimenter might place the coaxial fixture in a loop with a DC magnetic field oriented along the
coaxial axis. This configuration could help identification of magnetic resonant frequency and anisotropy field.

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