High frequency electrical measurements of adhesive bonded structures - An investigation of model parallel plate waveguide structure

Analysis using a network analyser of the electrical response between 300 kHz and 200 MHz for a range of model waveguide structures is discussed. The structures chosen illustrate the variations to be expected in real adhesive bonds and include changes in bond line thickness, width and electrical conductivity of the substrate. A simple theoretical model was used to simulate the time domain data and very good agreement between experiment and theory was observed. Deficiencies in the model appeared when it was used to simulate frequency domain data, and the limitations of these calculations ave critically discussed. The accuracy to which this method can be used to calculate the dielectric permittivity was assessed from a study of a number of polymers with well-defined dielectric characteristics. Parallel plate structures were fabricated using low density polyethylene (LDPE), high density polyethylene (HDPE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), polycarbonate (PC) and polymethyl methacrylate (PM MA). Good agreement between literature and experiment was observed in all cases, validating the dielectric permittivity values obtained using this approach. This paper illustrates the potential of nondestructive electrical measurements to provide structural and quantitative permittivity information on adhesive joint structures. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.