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Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 5 (2018) 208–215

Experimental retrieval of the negative parameters “Permittivity and

Permeability” based on a circular split ring resonator (CSRR) left
handed metamaterial

Moataza A. Hindy a , Ragab M. ElSagheer b , M.S. Yasseen c,∗

a Electronic Research Institute, Eltahrir St., Dokki, Cairo, Egypt
b Electrical Engineering Department, Al-Azhar University, Nasr City, Cairo, Egypt
c Electrical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Al-Azhar University, Qena, Egypt
Received 22 January 2017; accepted 22 May 2017
Available online 31 May 2017

Abstract
This paper presents a simulation and experimental retrieval negative permittivity and permeability based on a circular split ring
resonator left handed material (LHM). The LHM structure consists of five circular split ring resonators on one side of dielectric
substrate and a set of wire couples on other side. CST Microwave Studio is used to model the LHM structure to calculate the
scattering parameters (S11 and S21) from which the complex permittivity, permeability and refractive index can be retrieved.
MATLAB is used for verification of obtained negative values of structure’s parameter. The circuit was manufactured and measured.
The experimental results well agree with the simulated ones.
© 2017 Electronics Research Institute (ERI). Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Keywords: Split ring resonators; Left handed material (LHM); Negative impedance; Negative permittivity; Negative permeability; Negative refractive
index

1. Introduction

Metamaterials known as artificial material having many potential applications in science, technology and medicine
which have been receiving increased attention nowadays. All materials can be described electrically by their complex
permittivity (ε) and permeability (μ) in frequency domain. These parameters can be determining the response of the
material to electromagnetic (EM) radiation. In manufacturing processes due to the unpredictability, the only way to
find the parameters of materials is to measure them. For more than six decades the notion of metamaterials, that show

∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: msabry [email protected], [email protected] (M.S. Yasseen).
Peer review under the responsibility of Electronics Research Institute (ERI).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesit.2017.05.004
2314-7172/© 2017 Electronics Research Institute (ERI). Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
 M.A. Hindy et al. / Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 5 (2018) 208–215 209

Table 1
Values of Circular Split Ring Resonator Parameters.
Parameters Values Unit

Ls 24 mm
Ws 24 mm
R1 3 mm
R2 5 mm
R3 7 mm
R4 9 mm
R5 11 mm
Wr 1 mm
g 1 mm
Lw 22 mm
Ww 1 mm
Hw 4 mm

negative permeability and permittivity, is drawn a lot of interest. These materials are also called left-handed materials
(LHMs). (LHMs) is an artificial material having electromagnetic properties not found in nature. MTMs are first
known by Russian scientist Veselago but the experimental verification did not occur until several decades (Veselago,
1968). many recent papers have reveal the utility of metamaterials that lead to negative permeability, permittivity, and
refractive indexes (Kosaka et al., 1998; Pendry, 2000; Pendry et al., 1999; Smith and Kroll, 2000; Shelby et al., 2001a;
Grbic and Eleftheriades, 2002; Ziolkowski, 2001). The University of California, San Diego group, which follow the
work of Pendry (2000) and Pendry et al. (1999, 1996) in 2000 and demonstrated the first left-handed material (Smith
et al., 2000; Shelby et al., 2001b). This left-handed metamaterials (LHM) made use of nonmagnetic element, array
of conducting SRR, and an array of conducting continuous wires to achieve a negative permittivity and negative
permeability respectively. To realizing negative permeability, and permittivity, circular split ring resonators are used
on the top side of a dielectric substrate FR4 while a couple of wires on back side. From this structure SRR gives
negative permittivity, while the wires in the back side give negative permeability, and negative refractive index is also
carried out from the structure itself. The LHM structure has been simulated in CST Microwave Studio 2012 software
and scattering parameters (S11 and S21) are extracted to calculate negative values of permittivity, permeability and
refractive index using direct retrieval method (Smith et al., 2005; Zhou et al., 2009; Mallik et al., 2013).
The LHM have a lot of applications in microwave engineering (Lapine and Tretyakov, 2007). For LHM, we are
interested in their response to electromagnetic fields. The most important application of LHM is to be used as a substrate
or superstrate to improve the directivity and gain of antenna (Attia et al., 2009; Jin et al., 2012; Garg and Singhal,
2012). The other applications of LHMs are MTM-cloaking. The most attractive concept of LHM is the perfect lenses
and near field imaging (Lapine and Tretyakov, 2007).

2. Methodology

The design of LHM structure combines five circular split ring resonators of copper having different radii (R1–R5)
but having the same width (WF ) with spacing (g) on one side of the substrate. Five rectangular wires of same length
and width are printed on the other side of the substrate. The used substrate is FR4 having a dielectric constant of 4.3
and the thickness 1 mm. The structure of LHM front view (Circular SRR) and back view (wires) are shown in Fig. 1(a
& b) respectively.
The parameters of circular split ring resonator, wires and substrate are summarized in Table 1. Various methods
have been used to get negative permittivity and permeability from the simulated complex values of S-parameters.
Nicolson–Ross–Weir (NRW) method is one of the extreme refined methods to find negative values of permittivity and
permeability (Vicente et al., 2011; de Paula et al., 2011; Luukkonen et al., 2011; Ziolkowski, 2003). Other methods
used Lorentz model and Drude model made some hypothesis about negative permittivity and permeability (Mallik
et al., 2013; Engheta and Ziolkowski, 2006).
Between these and all other ways a direct retrieval method is used in this work which is more appropriate and
straightforward (Smith et al., 2005).
210 M.A. Hindy et al. / Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 5 (2018) 208–215

Fig. 1. (a) Circular SRR Top View, (b) Wires Back View.

Fig. 2. LHM structure among two waveguide ports.

M.A. Hindy et al. / Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 5 (2018) 208–215 211

Fig. 3. Photoghraphs of fabricated LHM cell.

Fig. 4. Simulated and measured S11 and S21 parameter.

212 M.A. Hindy et al. / Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 5 (2018) 208–215

Fig. 5. Simulated and measured permeability vs. frequency, GHz.

Fig. 6. Simulated and measured permittivity vs. frequency, GHz.

The suggested LHM model is placed between two waveguide ports at the left and right of X-axis. The wave is
excited from positive X-axis (Port 1) towards negative X-axis (Port 2) to calculate complex S11 (reflection of port 1 at
1) and complex S21 (Transmission at port 2 due to 1) parameters. The Y-plane is defined as a Perfect Electric Boundary
(PEB) while Z-plane is defined as a Perfect Magnetic Boundary (PMB). Simulated LHM metamaterial structure among
two waveguide ports is shown in Fig. 2.
S-parameters can be obtained from corresponding structure using T/R Method by CST Microwave Studio. Exporting
of scattering parameters (S11, and S21) to MATLAB to retrieve negative values of permittivity and permeability using
the following equations (Smith et al., 2005):

μ = nz (1)

And

ε = n/z (2)
 M.A. Hindy et al. / Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 5 (2018) 208–215 213

Fig. 7. Negative impedance vs. frequency, GHz.

Where
 
1 1
n= cos−1 (1 − S11
2
+ S21
2
) (3)
kd 2S21
And

(1 + S11 )2 − S21
2
z= (4)
(1 − S11 ) − S21
2 2

3. Simulated and experimental results discussion

Fig. 3 shows the photographs of the improved fabricated Circular LHM cell. Top view shows the circular SRR, and the
back view shows wires. Scattering parameters are the key terms for extracting negative permittivity and permeability.
The complex scattering parameters S11, and S21 are extracted from CST Microwave Studio. The simulation and
measured scattering parameters S11, and S21 as depicted in Fig. 4 shows good agreement. The structure resonates
within the given range of frequency.
The simulated and measured S11 and S21 parameters are exported to MATLAB and using earlier equations of
direct retrieval method, negative permeability and permittivity versus frequency are obtained as shown in Figs. 5 and 6
respectively. These figures give confirmation results of a negative behavior of the periodic structure, simulation and
measured negative permeability and permittivity shows good agreement.
Negative impedance and refractive index are also extracted from the MATLAB software using the same direct
retrieval method as shown in Figs. 7 and 8 respectively. Simulated and measured negative impedance and refractive
index shows good agreement. Over the given frequency range these Figs showed negative values of impedance and
refractive index.

4. Conclusion

The designed and fabricated structures are successfully yields. The structure was fabricated using standard PCB
fabrication. The negative values of permeability, permittivity, impedance, and refractive index are produced using
MATLAB from Transmission Reflection (T/R) method using direct retrieval technique from simulated and measured
S11 and S21. The experimental results well agree with the simulated ones. Negative parameters are obtained at different
operating frequencies (3.8–5.2 GHz). Simulation and fabrication structure has simultaneous negative permeability and
permittivity at the frequency range from 3.8 GHz to 5.2 GHz which gives left handed properties. The LHM structures
214 M.A. Hindy et al. / Journal of Electrical Systems and Information Technology 5 (2018) 208–215

Fig. 8. Negative refractive index vs. frequency, GHz.

in this work can interest, where negative refractive index, enhances gain and radiation characteristics of antennas at
specific range of frequency. The structure can be widely used for enhancement of different antenna’s parameters.

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