Microwave measurement system for dispersive dielectric properties of densely packed pellets

We present a microwave measurement system that is intended for the estimation of the dispersive dielectric properties for densely packed pellets. In particular, we estimate the Debye parameters for the effective permittivity of a mixture of air and densely packed moist microcrystalline cellulose pellets for the frequency band 2.7-5.1 GHz. The Debye parameters are estimated by means of minimizing the misfit between the measured scattering parameters and the corresponding computed response given a model of the measurement system. This minimization is performed by means of a nonlinear iterative optimization procedure, which is supported by continuum sensitivities, and the optimum is found in 10-60 iterations for the cases presented in this article. We find that increasing moisture content yields an increase in the static permittivity and a decrease in the relaxation time.