A Novel Approach for Material Characterization Based on a Retroreflector Wide Band Transceiver Radar

The non-destructive material characterization is not only an interesting field for the academic research but also of importance for different applications, e.g. security applications. In this paper a novel measurement set up for low-cost 60GHZ wideband FMCW-radar is introduced. This set-up replaces the bi-static antenna configuration that is needed for reflection based permittivity estimation. This technique is an advancement of the established Microwave Ellipsometry. The developed measurement technique and setup is called microwave retroreflector ellipsometry (MRE). The experimental validation is carried out with comparison with the well established delay time measurments (DTM) technique. Hence, different dieletric surfaces are examined. Finally the advantages of the MRE compared to the DTM are discussed.