Design and Construction of a High-Frequency Permeameter

Abstract

Communications are currently progressing toward higher frequency ranges. Devices like transmitters and receivers, which make use of components like inductors, are the foundation of communications. Inductance plays a critical role in the performance of these devices and material characterization is crucial to optimally design the novel components for the devices needed for the evolving communications field. Therefore, a high-frequency magnetic permeability measurement system is presented. By making use of a lock-in amplifier, the system introduces a modulating waveform to distinguish minute signal changes due to perturbations induced by the presence of a magnetic material. As a result, by exploiting the lock-in amplifier’s ability to discern its contributions to the final signal produced by the system, magnetic permeability calculations due to observed changes in power are vastly improved by disregarding additional noise the system will inevitably encounter.