AbstractThe basic dielectric properties of biological materials are required for the development of next‐generation microwave‐based medical instrumentation. The purpose of this paper is to further the study of the properties of blood using several different commonly used measurement methods. New data on the complex permittivity of chicken blood are presented in the frequency range between 45 MHz and 26.5 GHz at room temperature by using open‐ended coaxial probe techniques, and in the Ku‐band using waveguide techniques, with an Agilent 8510C network analyzer. A commonly used reference material, methanol, is used to verify the efficacy of these techniques. This data favorably compares to the general permittivity of blood that previous authors have published. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 39: 54–56, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.11125