Design, Implementation and Simulation of a Fringing Field Capacitive Humidity Sensor
Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technology, University Politehnica of Bucharest, 060042 București, Romania
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Sensors 2020, 20(19), 5644; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20195644
Received: 31 August 2020
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Revised: 21 September 2020
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Accepted: 28 September 2020
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Published: 2 October 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue State-of-the-Art Sensors Technology in Romania 2020)
The world population is growing in an accelerated way urging the need for a more efficient and sustainable agricultural industry. Initially developed for smart cities which face the same challenges caused by an increasing population, Internet of Things (IoT) technologies have evolved rapidly over the last few years and are now moving successfully to agriculture. Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have been reported to be used in the agri-food sector and could answer the call for a more optimized agricultural management. This paper investigates a PCB-made interdigited capacitive (IDC) soil humidity sensor as a low-price alternative to the existing ones on the market. An in-depth comparative study is performed on 30 design variations, part of them also manufactured for further investigations. By measurements and simulations, the influence of the aspect ratio and dielectric thickness on the sensitivity and capacitance of the sensor are studied. In the end, a Humidity and Temperature Measurement Wireless Equipment (HTMWE) for IoT agriculture applications is implemented with this type of sensor.
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Keywords:
fringe-field; humidity sensor; capacitive measurement; low power; agriculture; IoT
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MDPI and ACS Style
Petre, A.-R.; Craciunescu, R.; Fratu, O. Design, Implementation and Simulation of a Fringing Field Capacitive Humidity Sensor. Sensors 2020, 20, 5644. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20195644
AMA Style
Petre A-R, Craciunescu R, Fratu O. Design, Implementation and Simulation of a Fringing Field Capacitive Humidity Sensor. Sensors. 2020; 20(19):5644. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20195644
Chicago/Turabian StylePetre, Adrian-Razvan, Razvan Craciunescu, and Octavian Fratu. 2020. "Design, Implementation and Simulation of a Fringing Field Capacitive Humidity Sensor" Sensors 20, no. 19: 5644. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20195644
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