Effective area of thin guarded electrode in determining of permittivity and volume resistivity

Effective area of guarded electrode is always larger than its geometrical area as a result of fringing effect. In most standards concerning permittivity and volume resistivity measurements, an increase in the effective fringing is assumed as a half of the width of the gap between the guarded electrode and the guard electrode (then the factor B = 1). In some standards, the increase calculated from Amey relation, is assumed to be smaller (B < 1). The Amey relation is exact only for sample permittivity epsivrarrinfin . It is correct to apply the relation to calculate the volume resistivity, but it is incorrect to use it to calculate the permittivity of a sample. In this paper, a proper relation for the factor B has been derived analytically for thin electrodes made usually by thin film technology. The factor B can be used to calculate the permittivity of samples with arbitrary value of epsiv. Appropriate changes into the standard IEC 60250 and into other standards concerning permittivity measurements are proposed.