Dielectric properties of SrTiO3/POE flexible composites for microwave applications

Composites fabricated with SrTiO3 ceramic filler dispersed inside a thermoplastic polyolefin elastomer (POE) polymer matrix, with excellent dielectric properties and good flexibility, have been studied in this paper. The relative permittivity of SrTiO3/POE composites blended with different volume fraction of ceramic filler was investigated as a function of temperature and frequency. The results indicated that with the increase of ceramic filler, both the relative permittivity and the dissipation factor of composites increased. Good frequency stability within a wide range was observed in all the samples. The theoretical dielectric constant obtained from the effective medium theory of Bruggeman's model is in good agreement with the experimental data. For the composites containing 40 vol.% SrTiO3, the dielectric constant and the loss tangent were 11.0 and 0.01 at 900 MHz, respectively, while the mechanical test results showed good flexibility on the final quality of the composites with the elongation of 90%. This indicates that the ST/POE composites have the promising characteristics for potential applications in the flexible dielectric waveguide and related flexible microwave devices. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.