Free-space materials characterization techniques
The free-space method works best for large, flat solid materials, but granular and powdered materials can also be measured in a fixture. It is very useful for many applications such as non-destructive testing, measuring materials that must be heated to very high temperatures, or measuring a large area of material that is non-uniform such as a honeycomb or a composite.
The materials are placed between two antennae for a non-contacting measurement (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Illustration of the free-space method.
As part of the 5G/6G MAESTRO project, work on this page is supported by the Office of Advanced Manufacturing in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), under the Federal Award ID Number 70NANB22H050.