Scientific Instrumentation Laboratory, Department of Instrumentation, Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Anantapur - 515 055, A.P., INDIA.
An embedded based system for the measurement of dielectric constant in solids has been designed & developed. It is based on the technique that utilizes frequency measurement for determination of capacitance using the microcontroller as a tool. The change in frequency of XR-2206 function generator, when the solid forms the dielectric medium of the dielectric cell, is measured with a microcontroller. Atmel's AT89C51 Microcontroller is used in the present study. Further, an LCD module is interfaced with the microcontroller in 4-bit mode, which reduces the hardware complexity. The results of the instrument displayed on LCD and Personal Computer simultaneously. Software is developed in C using Ride's C-cross compiler. The instrument system covers a wide range of dielectric constant for various solids. The system is quite successful in the measurement of dielectric constant in liquids with an accuracy of ± 0.2%. The paper deals with the hardware and software details.
Dielectric constant, XR-2206 Function generator, Frequency measurement, C using Ride's C-cross compiler, 89C51 Microcontroller
