Junho Yeo

This study investigates the humidity sensing characteristics of microwave sensors coated with polyvinyl alcohol/carboxymethyl cellulose (PVA/CMC) composites with different weight percentages. The microwave sensor has a band-stop filter characteristic and consists of a microstrip transmission line with an interdigital capacitor-defected ground structure (IDC-DGS). To evaluate performance, PVA/CMC composites were prepared in 100/0 (pure PVA), 90/10, 80/20, 60/40, and 0/100 (pure CMC) weight percentages. The humidity sensing capability of the IDC-DGS-based microwave sensors coated with the PVA/CMC composites with different weight percentages was compared by measuring the variations in the resonant frequency and magnitude level of the transmission coefficient. The relative humidity (RH) was changed from 40% to 90% with increments of 10% at a temperature around 25 °C. The experimental results demonstrate that the humidity sensing capability of the microwave sensor in terms of the variations in the resonant frequency and magnitude level of the transmission coefficient increased as the weight percentage of CMC content increased. Pure CMC shows enhanced humidity sensing performance compared to gelatin and PVA in terms of the percent relative frequency shift and effective relative permittivity.

In this paper, the humidity-sensing characteristics of gelatin were compared with those of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) at L-band (1 ~ 2 GHz) microwave frequencies. A capacitive microwave sensor based on a defected ground structure with a modified interdigital capacitor (DGS-MIDC) in a microstrip transmission line operating at 1.5 GHz without any coating was used. Gelatin is a natural polymer based on protein sourced from animal collagen, whereas PVA is a high-sensitivity hydrophilic polymer that is widely used for humidity sensors and has a good film-forming property. Two DGS-MIDC-based microwave sensors coated with type A gelatin and PVA, respectively, with a thickness of 0.02 mm were fabricated. The percent relative frequency shift (PRFS) and percent relative magnitude shift (PRMS) based on the changes in the resonant frequency and magnitude level of the transmission coefficient for the microwave sensor were used to compare the humidity-sensing characteristics. The relative humidity (RH) was varied from 50% to 80% with a step of 10% at a fixed temperature of around 25 °C using a low-reflective temperature and humidity chamber manufactured with Styrofoam. The experiment’s results show that the capacitive humidity sensitivity of the gelatin-coated microwave sensor in terms of the PRFS and PRMS was higher compared to that of the PVA-coated one. In particular, the sensitivity of the gelatin-coated microwave sensor at a low RH from 50% to 60% was much greater compared to that of the PVA-coated one. In addition, the relative permittivity of the fabricated microwave sensors coated with PVA and gelatin was extracted by using the measured PRFS and the equation was derived by curve-fitting the simulated results. The change in the extracted relative permittivity for the gelatin-coated microwave sensor was larger than that of the PVA-coated one for varying the RH.

In this paper, two kinds of miniaturization methods for designing a compact wideband tapered slot antenna (TSA) using either fan-shaped structures only or fan-shaped and stepped structures were proposed. First, a miniaturization method appending the fan-shaped structures, such as quarter circular slots (QCSs), half circular slots (HCSs), and half circular patches (HCPs), to the sides of the ground conductor for the TSA was investigated. The effects of appending the QCSs, HCSs, and HCPs sequentially on the input reflection coefficient and gain characteristics of the TSA were compared. The compact wideband TSA using the first miniaturization method showed the simulated frequency band for a voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) less than 2 of 2.530–13.379 GHz (136.4%) with gain in the band ranging 3.1–6.9 dBi. Impedance bandwidth was increased by 29.7% and antenna size was reduced by 39.1%, compared to the conventional TSA. Second, the fan-shaped structures combined with the stepped structures (SSs) were added to the sides of the ground conductor to further miniaturize the TSA. The fan-shaped structures based on the HCSs and HCPs were appended to the ground conductor with the QCSs and SSs. The compact wideband TSA using the second miniaturization method had the simulated frequency band for a VSWR less than 2 of 2.313–13.805 GHz (142.6%) with gain in the band ranging 3.0–8.1 dBi. Impedance bandwidth was increased by 37.8% and antenna size was reduced by 45.9%, compared to the conventional TSA. Therefore, the increase in impedance bandwidth and the size reduction effect of the compact wideband TSA using the second miniaturization method were better compared to those using the first method. In addition, sidelobe levels at high frequencies decreased while gain at high frequencies increased. A prototype of the compact wideband TSA using the second miniaturization method was fabricated on an RF-35 substrate to validate the simulation results. The measured frequency band for a VSWR less than 2 was 2.320–13.745 GHz (142.2%) with measured gain ranging 3.1–7.9 dBi.

This paper proposes a microwave sensor based on a high-sensitivity slot-loaded rectangular microstrip patch antenna (MPA) for measuring microliter-volume liquid chemicals with high relative permittivity and high loss tangent. A rectangular single-ring complementary split ring resonator (SR-CSRR) slot with a bottom-edge center split (BCS) was inserted along the upper radiating edge of the patch to enhance the relative permittivity sensitivity of the MPA. The first resonant frequency of the proposed SR-CSRR-BCS slot-loaded MPA showed the highest sensitivity compared to the resonant frequencies of the MPAs with other commonly used slots for varying the relative permittivity of the planar substrate type material under test from 1 to 10 when placed above the patch. After designing the scaled SR-CSRR-BCS slot-loaded MPA with the unloaded first resonant frequency at 2.5 GHz, a hollow acrylic cylindrical liquid container with an inner volume of approximately 18.6 μL was placed at the top-edge center of the SR-CSRR-BCS slot to achieve maximum sensitivity. A quarter-wavelength transformer was applied between the patch and the feed line of the MPA to improve the impedance mismatch that occurs when liquid chemicals with a high loss tangent are placed in the container. Water, methanol, and ethanol were carefully selected for test liquids to cover a broad range of relative permittivity and high loss tangents. The proposed SR-CSRR-BCS slot-loaded MPA was designed and fabricated on a 0.76 mm-thick RF-35 substrate, and a reference RS-loaded MPA was designed and fabricated for comparison. The shift in the first resonant frequency of the input reflection coefficient characteristic was used for the sensitivity comparison, and the container was filled with 15 μL of the liquids at 25 °C. The measured sensitivity (%) of the proposed SR-CSRR-BCS slot-loaded MPA for water was 0.45%, which was higher than other antenna-based microwave sensors in the literature.

An eight-bit chipless radio frequency identification tag providing humidity sensing and identification information is proposed. A compact, enhanced-sensitivity resonator based on an interdigital capacitor (IDC) structure is designed for humidity sensing, whereas seven electric-field-coupled inductor capacitor (ELC) resonators are used for identification information. These eight resonators are placed in a two-by-four array arrangement. A step-by-step investigation for the effect of varying the number of elements and array configuration on the resonant frequency and radar cross-section (RCS) magnitude of the IDC resonator is conducted. The RCS value of the resonant peak frequency for the IDC resonator increases as the number of array elements placed nearby increases due to the mutual coupling among the elements, and the increase in the RCS value becomes larger as the number of arrays increases in the vertical direction. Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is coated on the IDC-based resonator at a thickness of 0.02 mm. A non-reflective temperature and humidity chamber is fabricated using Styrofoam, and the relative humidity (RH) is varied from 50% to 80% in 10% intervals at 25 °C in order to measure a bistatic RCS of the proposed tag. The humidity sensing performance of the IDC resonator in the proposed tag is measured by the shift in the resonant peak frequency and the RCS value, and is compared with a single ELC resonator. Experiment results show that when RH increased from 50% to 80%, the sensitivities of both the resonant peak frequency and the RCS value of the IDC resonator were better than those of the ELC resonator. The variation in the RCS value is much larger compared to the resonant peak frequency for both IDC and ELC resonators. In addition, the resonant peak frequency and RCS value of the PVA-coated IDC-based resonator change, whereas those of the other seven resonators without a PVA coating do not change.

A miniaturized wideband loop antenna for terrestrial digital television (DTV) and ultra-high definition (UHD) TV applications is proposed. The original wideband loop antenna consists of a square loop, two circular sectors to connect the loop with central feed points, and a 75 ohm coplanar waveguide (CPW) feed line inserted in the lower circular sector. The straight side of the square loop is replaced with a multiple half-circular-ring-based loop structure. Horizontal slits are appended to the two circular sectors in order to further reduce the antenna size. A tapered CPW feed line is also employed in order to improve impedance matching. The experiment results show that the proposed miniaturized loop antenna operates in the 460.7–806.2 MHz frequency band for a voltage standing wave ratio less than two, which fully covers the DTV and UHD TV bands (470–771 MHz). The proposed miniaturized wideband loop antenna has a length reduction of 21.43%, compared to the original loop antenna.

A comparative study to determine the most highly sensitive resonant frequency among the first four resonant frequencies of a conventional patch antenna and defected ground structure (DGS)-loaded patch antennas using commonly used DGS geometries in the literature, such as a rectangular slit, single-ring complementary split ring resonators (CSRRs) with different split positions, and double-ring CSRRs (DR-CSRRs) with different locations below the patch, for relative permittivity measurement of planar materials was conducted. The sensitivity performance for placing the DGS on two different locations, a center and a radiating edge of the patch, was also compared. Finally, the effect of scaling down the patch size of the DGS-loaded patch antenna was investigated in order to enhance the sensitivities of the higher order resonant frequencies. It was found that the second resonant frequency of the DR-CSRR DGS-loaded patch antenna aligned on a radiating edge with a half scaled-down patch size shows the highest sensitivity when varying the relative permittivity of the material under test from 1 to 10. In order to validate the simulated performance of the proposed antenna, the conventional and the proposed patch antennas were fabricated on 0.76-mm-thick RF-35 substrate, and they were used to measure their sensitivity when several standard dielectric substrate samples with dielectric constants ranging from 2.17 to 10.2 were loaded. The measured sensitivity of the second resonant frequency for the proposed DGS-loaded patch antenna was 4.91 to 7.72 times higher than the first resonant frequency of the conventional patch antenna, and the measured performance is also slightly better compared to the patch antenna loaded with a meander-line slot on the patch.

This article compares the humidity sensing performance of microwave sensors coated with a poly(methyl methacrylate), poly(2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate), or poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) polymer. A microwave sensor based on a modified interdigital‐capacitor‐shaped defected ground structure (IDCS‐DGS) in a microstrip transmission line with enhanced permittivity sensitivity was designed on an RF‐301 substrate with a thickness of 0.76 mm, which operate at a 1.5 GHz microwave frequency under unloaded conditions. One of the three different polymers was coated onto the IDCS‐DGS of the microwave sensors at a thickness of 0.02 mm. The humidity sensing performance of the microwave sensors coated with each of the three polymers was measured by the shift in the resonant frequency and magnitude level of the transmission coefficient when relative humidity was varied from 40 to 90%, with increments of 10%, at a temperature of 25°C. The experiment results show that the humidity sensing performance of the PVA‐coated microwave sensor is the best among the three polymers.

A design method for a high-sensitivity microstrip patch sensor antenna (MPSA) using a radiating-edge slot-loaded patch was studied for permittivity measurement. In order to enhance the sensitivity to permittivity, a bent slot similar to a single-ring complementary split ring resonator was loaded along a radiating edge of the patch. The sensitivity of the proposed bent slot-loaded MPSA was compared with that of a conventional rectangular MPSA and a thin rectangular slit-loaded MPSA. A 0.76-mm-thick RF-35 substrate was used to design and fabricate the three MPSAs with a resonant frequency at 2.5 GHz in the absence of the material under test (MUT). Five different Taconic substrates with a relative permittivity ranging from 2.17 to 10.2 and a thickness around 1.6 mm were used as the MUT. The measured sensitivity of the proposed bent slot-loaded MPSA, which is calculated by the shift in the resonant frequency of the input reflection coefficient, was 4.28 to 6.10 times higher than that of the conventional MPSA. In addition, the patch size of the proposed bent slot-loaded MPSA was reduced about 32% with a compact sensing area, compared to the conventional MPSA.