Recent advancements in smart sensors and sensing technology

The chapter presents the design and development of very low cost planar sensors and sensing systems for measuring fat contents in meat, leather quality assessment, food quality, and biomedical application such as cancer detection, agriculture, and RFID based detection systems. The sensors comprise planar passive microwave integrated circuits in the forms of microstrip meander lines, mesh and inter-digital capacitance. The sensors are excited with voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs) and power supply units. A data acquisition system based on a microcontroller and an op-amp based interfacing circuits complete the sensing system. The results of various characteristics parameters of samples are presented and compared with the results from expensive conventional measurement set up. These low cost sensors bring benefits in the sensing technology with novel and accurate concepts.20 page(s