Stub resonators: transmission-line-based water sensors

Drinking water, surface water and waste water may contain toxic or otherwise undesired components at a wide range of concentration levels. In order to safeguard water quality, the early detection of pollutants and control of process conditions by continuous monitoring is mandatory. However, currently existing (bio) chemical detection methods are offline and by implication labor-intensive and thus expensive. This conclusion drives the search to develop a new class of inline sensors for the cost-effective monitoring of water quality. The focus of this PhD study was to explore the use of antenna or transmission-line-based technology to measure water quality in terms of its composition. In addition, several other applications of this technology has been investigates, ranging from biofilm and corrosion development to measuring the load of ion exchange columns