The determination of the complex permittivity of low-loss construction materials at frequency bands above 6 GHz that are being proposed to allocate forthcoming mobile radio services is of critical importance for the design and deployment of future wireless systems. In this paper, a simple free-space method for the electromagnetic characterization of construction materials that does not require multiple reflection or transmission coefficient measurements for different incidence angles or complex optimization procedures is proposed and tested. The method is shown to yield permittivity and conductivity values in agreement with the literature for some common-use materials using a relatively simple measurement setup and procedure.
