A microwave permittivity sensing system based on a hybrid heterodyne reflectometer circuit

Nehring, J.; Schuetz, Martin; Weigel, Robert; Kissinger, Dietmar

doi:10.1109/eumc.2014.6986394

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…The direct-conversion reflectometers in [21] at 55-77 GHz and in [22] at 60 GHz have been introduced due to its simplicity and friendly integration capabilities. Nevertheless, a mixer-based heterodyne architecture in the design of reflectometer shows superior advantage in terms of dynamic range, which has been shown in [23] at 0.01-26 GHz, [24] at 14-18 GHz, and [25] at 70-110 GHz. By increasing the operational frequency and implementing the on-chip sensing element, it makes the small-fluid-portion and space-restricted possible to have the compact sensing element and microfluidic channel on-chip integration with micrometer-range distance sensing.…”

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confidence: 99%

240-GHz Reflectometer-Based Dielectric Sensor With Integrated Transducers in a 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS Technology

Wang

Eissa

Schmalz

et al. 2021

IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Techn.

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This article presents a reflectometer-based on-chip dielectric sensor with integrated transducers at 240 GHz. The chip simplifies the measurement of a vector network analyzer (VNA) to sense the incident and reflected waves by using two heterodyne mixer-based receivers with a dielectric sensing element. Radio frequency (RF) and local oscillator (LO) submillimeter waves are generated by two frequency multiplier chains, respectively. Two back-to-back identical differential side-coupled directive couplers are proposed to separate the incident and reflected signals and couple them to mixers. Both transmission line and coplanar stripline transducers are proposed and integrated with reflectometer to investigate the sensitivity of dielectric sensors. The latter leads to a larger power variation of the reflectometer by providing more sufficient operating bands for the magnitude and phase slope of S 11. The readout of the transducers upon exposure to liquids is performed by the measurement of their reflected signals using two external excitation sources. The experimental dielectric sensing is demonstrated by using binary methanol-ethanol mixture placed on the proposed on-chip dielectric sensor in the assembled printed circuit board. It enables a maximum 8 dB of the power difference between the incident and reflected channels on the measurement of liquid solvents. Both chips occupy an area of 4.03 mm 2 and consume 560 mW. Along with a wide operational frequency range from 200 to 240 GHz, this simplified one-port-VNA-based on-chip device makes it feasible for the use of handle product and suitable for the submillimeter-wave dielectric spectroscopy applications.

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confidence: 99%