Single-frequency amplitude-modulation sensor for dielectric characterization of solids and microfluidics

A microfluidic sensor based on a microstrip line loaded with a composite resonator is reported in this paper. The composite resonator combines a shunt connected step impedance resonator (SIR) and a complementary split ring resonator CSRR) etched in the ground plane. By etching the CSRR beneath the p...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Vélez, Paris|||0000-0001-6502-5987, Muñoz Enano, Jonathan|||0000-0003-1271-3801, Ebrahimi, Amir|||0000-0002-1787-2230, Herrojo, Cristian|||0000-0003-1934-9993, Paredes Marco, Ferran|||0000-0002-7252-1169, Scott, James, Ghorbani, Kamran|||0000-0001-8767-0207, Martín, Ferran|||0000-0002-1494-9167
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de Documents de la UAB
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ddd.uab.cat:258248
Acceso en línea:https://ddd.uab.cat/record/258248
https://dx.doi.org/urn:doi:10.1109/JSEN.2021.3062290
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Complementary split ring resonator (CSRR)
Microfluidics
Microstrip technology
Microwave sensors
Permittivity measurements
Step impedance resonator (SIR)
Descripción
Sumario:A microfluidic sensor based on a microstrip line loaded with a composite resonator is reported in this paper. The composite resonator combines a shunt connected step impedance resonator (SIR) and a complementary split ring resonator CSRR) etched in the ground plane. By etching the CSRR beneath the patch of the SIR, the composite CSRR-loaded SIR resonator exhibits two transmission zeros and a pole in between. The operating principle of the sensor is the variation of the transmission coefficient at the pole frequency of the bare resonator, when a material or liquid under test (LUT) is in contact with the CSRR (the sensitive element). By designing the CSRR-loaded SIR resonator with closely spaced pole and transmission zeros, highly sensitive sensors are obtained. Despite the fact that the proposed sensor can also operate as a frequency variation sensor, using it as a single-frequency sensor based on the variation of the transmission coefficient (caused by the LUT) at a specific frequency reduces sensor costs. The reason is that a harmonic signal injected to the input port of the microstrip-based sensor plus a simple amplitude modulation (AM) detector (connected to the output port) suffices for measuring purposes. The proposed microfluidic sensor is applied to the characterization of volume fraction of solutions of isopropanol in deionized (DI) water. The sensor is able to resolve volume fractions as small as 5%, and the maximum measured sensitivity is as good as 4 mV/%.