Developing a standard reference material for mmWave dielectrics

With growing interest in millimeter wave (mmWave, 30 GHz – 300 GHz) technologies, researchers and manufacturers need technical standards for measurement technique validation, new material acceptance, and quality assurance. Today, there is no standard reference material for dielectric permittivity and loss tangent in the mmWave regime. Here, we take the first steps to developing a standard reference material for permittivity and loss tangent from 20 GHz to 80 GHz. Our approach uses new split cylinder resonators for dielectric measurements, high purity fused silica substrates, and dimensional metrology tools with nanometer-scale accuracy. In this work, we discuss results of an industry-government round-robin which informed the design of the standard reference material. We describe the development of the standard and welcome any discussion about improving its usefulness to end-users.