Non-Destructive Characterization Of Pharmaceutical Tablets Using Terahertz Frequency Domain Spectroscopy

In this paper, terahertz frequency domain spectroscopy (THz-FDS) in transmission mode is used to study the influence of porosity on effective permittivity in pharmaceutical tablets. Three sets of training tablets with different dielectric constants were generated using microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), Benzophenone and Succinic acid. In each set, various compaction forces have been applied to the powders to produce tablets with different porosity. The results show that the extracted effective permittivity is sensitive to the change of porosity in tablets. Moreover, the results confirm that THz-FDS is able to differentiate between tablets with different dielectric constant and a linear correlation between effective permittivity and tablet density is observed. Therefore, THz-FDS technique is shown to be a promising technique for quality inspection of pharmaceutical tablets.