Wideband microstrip antenna for the detection of solutes in water

Abstract

Effective detection of solutes in water has always been a challenging issue in real‐time. This article presents a technique to detect solutes such as table sugar (CHOO3), common salt (NaCl), and combinations thereof in water using a wideband microstrip antenna with an electromagnetic band gap ground structure. An antenna is designed and fabricated to operate at the bandwidth of 3 GHz with a stable gain of 9 dBi maintaining voltage standing wave ratio ≤ 2. The uniquely designed antenna works as a sensor in its near field to sense solutes in water as a function of the resonant frequency. Apart from sensing solutes, the proposed technique also efficiently detects temperature of soft drinks. As temperature of soft drinks changes, reflection characteristics of an antenna change too. The results of the experiments show that as the concentration of the solute increases, the return loss decreases. The beauty of this technique is its efficient detection without any physical contact with a solution and without disturbing the chemical processes inside the solution. This method can be quite useful for food regulation boards to analyze and detect the contents of beverages, soft drinks and any consumable liquid, whether hot or cold.

Microstrip Copper Nanowires Antenna Array for Connected Microwave Liquid Sensors

“…A sensitivity equal to 0.21 kHz/(mg/L) was estimated. Both the sensitivity and the quality factor of the sensor are in line with the average values reported in the literature [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ]. However, this result was achieved with a small form factor, i.e., 18 mm × 19 mm, and minimizing the design cost by exploiting an already available K-band antenna.…”

“…As a matter of fact, in recent years, a strong correlation between advanced communications and microwave sensors is emerging due to the need to design advanced smart sensors, not only able to measure the parameters of interest but also to collect all the required data and send them to a remote receiver by exploiting the novel paradigm of 5G and, in the near future, 6G technology [ 14 , 15 ]. To this end, very recent contributions focused on microwave antennas exploited as gas or liquid sensors are reported in literature [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ]. The topic is very interesting because employing an antenna as the sensing element enables the design of smart connected sensors directly able to send the measured data.…”

Filtenna with Frequency Reconfigurable Operation for Cognitive Radio and Wireless Applications

“…To widen the operating bandwidth of microstrip antennae, many efforts have been exerted by the publishers taking into consideration the size miniaturization, complexity minimization, and cost reduction. Different techniques have been addressed to meet the desired requirements and some of these techniques are partial ground plane [ 6 , 7 , 8 ], electromagnetic band gap (EBG) ground structure [ 9 ], loaded rectangular and annular notches in the ground plane [ 10 , 11 , 12 ], radiator ring slot and shorting vias [ 13 ], parasitic elements [ 14 ], and electrostrictive effect [ 15 ].…”