Experiment name: Measurement of Dielectric Constant

Theory:

The dielectric constant of a substance can be defined as the ratio of the permittivity of the substance to the
permittivity of the free space. It expresses the extent to which a material can hold electric flux in it.

It can be performed using various laboratory techniques, including the bridge method with an oscillator
detector & the resonance method.

Method-1: Bridge method

A very important bridge used for the precision measurement of capacitors and their insulating properties
such as dielectric constant is the Schering Bridge Experiment.

Equipment :

1. An impedance bridge circuit

2. An oscilloscope
3. A capacitance meter or a digital multimeter (DMM)
4. The sample material
5. A reference material with a known dielectric constant, such as air or a vacuum.

Figure: Schering bridge

Procedure:

The parallel plate arrangement of the relative permeability is mathematically expressed as,
∈s = 𝐶s𝑑/ ∈0 𝐴

Where Cs is the capacitance measured value considering specimen as dielectric on specimen capacitance,
d is the space between electrodes ,A is the electrode effective area, d is the specimen thickness, x is the
reduction in separation between electrodes % specimen and so ∈0 is the permeability of the free space.
𝐶 = 𝐶s𝐶0 / (𝐶s +𝐶0)
So,
𝐶 =((∈r ∈0 𝐴/d)*( ∈0 𝐴/t))/ ((∈r ∈0 𝐴)+( ∈0 𝐴/t))

The mathematical expression to reduce the specimen is shown below.

∈r =𝑑/(𝑑 – 𝑥)

This is the explanation of the measurement of relative permeability with the Schering bridge.

Method-2: Resonance Method

Equipment :

1. A function generator
2. An LCR meter or impedance analyzer
3. A sample material
4. A reference material with a known dielectric constant, such as air or a vacuum.

Figure: Resonant circuit

Procedure:

Here, the resonance method for increasing impedance is described. In this method the condenser is
Connected in series with an circuit an inductance L in a resonant circuit as the condenser, connected with
an inductance L is a simple Parallel plate condenser. The current in circuit can be indicated by a high
impedance-voltmeter across the condenser whose capacitance is than obtained from the frequency at
resonance, to the following equation,
L
C=
√2 πf
Here L & f0 are known

We know that
∈=¿ C/C0

By this equation , we can found out the dielectric constant of textile fiber.

Conclusion:

Bridge method is well-known and the equipment are available. This method is more suitable at audio
frequencies from about 50Hz to 100KHz)

In the resonance method, the dielectric constant is extracted from the dielectric resonator’s resonance
frequency. The dielectric constant was derived from the lowest resonance frequency (fundamental
mode) .