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Excellence in Broadband Dielectric Spectroscopy • Impedance Spectroscopy • Conductivity Spectroscopy

Overview

Dielectric analyzers for the electrical characterisation of materials or components in the frequency domain

Generals

Impedance analyzers measure the complex impedance Z*(ω) = Z'(ω) + jZ''(ω) between electrical ports of a system under test in dependence of frequency ω/(2π). For materials analysis,  the Z*(ω) spectrum of two or more electrodes with the sample material in between is measured.

Depending on the sample material, the demand on the performance of the impedance analyzer may be extraordinarily high. As a consequence, the quality of measurement results usually depends strongly on the analyzer performance.

In practice, the focus is less on extremely high accuracy, but rather on the determination of both components (i.e., real and imaginary parts) of Z*(ω), permittivity ε*(ω) or conductivity σ*(ω).

Besides the frequency range, the impedance range and the tan(δ) or phase accuracy are the most important performance parameters.

Low frequency analyzers < 40 MHz
RF impedance analyzers > 1 MHz
At frequencies above about 10 MHz, electrical wave effects become prominent and microwave techniques have to be applied.