Differential dielectric analyzer

An apparatus for analyzing the dielectric properties of a sample comprising:

• a substrate;
• a first bottom electrode mounted on said substrate;
• a second bottom electrode mounted on said substrate;
• a top electrode;
• oscillator means, coupled to said first and second bottom electrodes, for driving said first and second bottom electrodes, said second electrode being driven out of phase relative to said first electrode;
• demodulator means, coupled to said top electrode, for extracting a signal representative of the conductance of the sample and a signal representative of the susceptance of the sample;
• calculator means, coupled to said oscillator means and said demodulator means, for calculating desired dielectric properties of the sample;
• display means, coupled to said calculator means, for displaying desired dielectric properties of the sample;
• and
• heater means, coupled to said substrate, for heating the sample over a range of temperatures.

An apparatus for analyzing dielectric properties comprising:

• a substrate;
• a first bottom electrode mounted on said substrate;
• a second bottom electrode mounted on said substrate adjacent said first bottom electrode, said second bottom electrode having a top surface area equal to a top surface area of said first bottom electrode;
• a top electrode positioned above said first and second bottom electrodes having a bottom surface area at least as large as the combined top surface areas of said first and second bottom electrode;
• a planar sample to be analyzed, said sample having a hole therein, said sample positioned between said top electrode and said first and second bottom electrodes such that the hole is positioned completely over one of said first or second bottom electrodes;
• oscillator means, coupled to said first and second bottom electrodes, for applying a first signal to said first bottom electrode, and a second signal 180.degree. out of phase with said first signal to said second bottom electrode;
• and
• phase sensitive demodulator means, coupled to said top electrode and said oscillator means, for obtaining a first component in phase with said first signal representative of the conductance of said sample and a second component 90.degree. out of phase with said first signal representative of the susceptance of the sample.