A new capacitive test structure is used to characterize biopolymers at microwave frequencies. The new test structure is comprised of a parallel plate capacitor, combined with coplanar waveguide-based input and output feed lines. This allows electrical measurements to be taken easily under an applied DC electric field and at various temperatures. The dielectric properties are characterized for two biopolymer thin films: a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-based film and a bovine serum albumin (BSA)-based film. These bio-dielectric thin films are compared with a standard commercial polymer thin film, poly[Bisphenol A carbonate-co-4,4'(3,3,5-trimethyl cyclohexylidene) diphenol], also known as amorphous polycarbonate (APC).

Date Published: 7 February 2007
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 6470, Organic Photonic Materials and Devices IX, 64700C (7 February 2007); doi: 10.1117/12.699561

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 6470:
Organic Photonic Materials and Devices IX
James G. Grote; Francois Kajzar; Nakjoong Kim, Editor(s)